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SEVEN YEARS 



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PRAIRIE LIFE 



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SEVEN YEARS 



OF 



PRAIRIE LIFE 



By JAMES P. PRICE. 



1891 : 

JAKEMAN & CARVER, 

HEREFORD. 



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Preface 



TN putting forth this httle volume of my personal 
experiences of Hfe on the American prairie, I do 
not feel that I am treading on ground which has been 
covered by other writers on the vast subject of America. 
My object has been to give some of those details of 
travel, impressions, and experiences, which will probably 
fall to the lot of the emigrant, but which do not 
come within the ken of the ordinary traveller. 



In the matter of even successful prairie farming 
"things are not what they seem," notwithstanding the 
extravagant puff of the newspaper article, or the book 
that is intended to advertize the new country, at the 
same time rousing hopes of a " Promised Land " in 
the breast of the European farmer, who is struggling 
for existence. It is not the object of this book to 
do either. 



PREFACE. 



One great misfortune in the settling of the West is 
the desire on the part of emigrants to obtain land, 
without the slightest regard to the law of supply and 
demand, as applying to farm produce ; whilst another 
important factor has been the natural desire of every 
one of the older settlers to see the land around them 
settled up, so that their farms may become more valuable. 
Hence the suppression of truth — truth, which the settler 
in his stoutness of heart, and buoyant hopefulness, will 
not even admit to himself. 

Nothing could have given me greater pleasure than 
to have found that the wholesale emigration of our 
surplus population was the panacea to all evils attending 
an overpeopled country, but in all honesty, after a most 
careful study of the question, I cannot see that any 
emigration — except such as goes on, on voluntary lines, 
or in such cases as Dr. Barnardo's — will ever be attended 
with success. Therefore, I trust, that some measure 
will soon be passed such as is mentioned in my last 
chapter, so that our rural population will be largely 
increased, and this, with the undoubted desire of 
both political parties to improve the social condition 
of the people, should be no Utopian or chimerical 
idea. 



PREFACE. Vll. 



If the steerage passenger has his wants better attended 
to, and his sense of decency more carefully considered 
now, than he did when I crossed and re-crossed the 
Atlantic, I shall rejoice to hear of it, but if not, I hope 
that the strictest investigation will be made, so that 
a better state of things may be brought about for the 
benefit of the British emigrant. 

To any person having leisure, and the necessary means 
at his disposal, a visit to America must prove of interest, 
for America is a country which " must be seen to be 
believed." 

I should, in closing this, my introduction, which I 
find, like many other prefaces, is not an introduction at all, 
like to place on record that nothing lives in my memory 
more vividly than the uniform kindness which I received 
at the hands of my fellow residents in that far off 
country, and should this volume by chance reach any 
of them, I may fairly hope, that they will at least think 
with me that I have extenuated nothing nor set down 
aught in malice. 

J. P. P. 



Contents. 



CHAPTER 1. 

THE RIDE TO KANSAS. 

The sea voyage— Going aboard— A dense fog— Two collisions— 
Where's the luggage? — A confused scene — Incipient sea sickness — 
Pat and his box— Pat in love— The breach of promise— Trial and 
verdict— Sea sickness— Time and ginger beer works wonders— Sunday 
on board ship— The rolling vessel— Floating icebergs— Sea-gulls- 
Flying fish— Death and burial at sea— Land a-head— Preparing to 
land— The Custom House officers— Passengers and luggage again 
afloat— Castle Garden— A German boarding-house— Special reporter— 
IVIore trouble with the luggage— An easy-going " baggage master "—On 
the train — The appearance of the country — Fifteen miles an hour— Offer 
of employment — Breakfast under difficulties — Queer advertisements — 
Crossing the Mississippi— St. Louis— Twelve hours delay— The Missouri 
river — The journey's end. 



CHAPTER II. 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 

Alighting on the prairie— Amateur housebreaking— A friend to the 
rescue— Interior of the prairie home-r-The tinkling cow bell— A view 
from the window— Sunrise on the prairie— Welcome into society— A 
drive to town—" The metropolis of tlie West "—Stores and storekeepers 
—Dinner at the restaurant— Prairie fires at night— A weird sight. 



X. CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER III. 

STOCK AND CROPS. 

Looking for a team of horses — Dilapidated horse flesh — The livery 
stable proprietor— A squatter's shanty— We dine— Codlin and Short— 
The Kansas mule and the British War Department— Josh Billings on the 
mule — Hogs — Hereford and Shorthorn cattle — Sheep— How Indian corn 
is grown — The soil — Thunderstorms— Pleasing prospects — A hailstorm 
and cyclone — Gathering corn — Prairie hay — Selling stock and produce 
— Taxation. 



CHAPTER IV. 

RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL LIFE. 

Sunday school and religious services — Supporting the minister- 
Education and teachers — School districts and managers — The school 
meeting — An awkward customer—" Mr. Chairman " — Woman suffrage 
and its antidote — Illiteracy not j^revalent — Population and size of 
Kansas — Government land— Englishman's good opinion of himself at a 
discount— Political dangers— The popular man and the "prominent 
citizen " — The Literary and Debating Society— Juvenile orators— The 
presidential nursery — The bagpipes at close quarters— Manhood suffrage 
— The State Senate and House of Representatives— County officers — 
Naturalization of foreigners— Free trade and protection— Enormous 
rates of interest — Food cheap and good — The cooking — Social gather- 
ings — A leg of mutton — The hired man, his wages and his ways — The 
hired girl— The Prohibitory Law— Whiskey in the graveyard— Tobacco 
chewing— Profane language— Ague— A country funeral. 



CHAPTER V. 

A FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION. 

A brief sketch of the origin of Independence Day— Among the 
Americans— An anomalous position— A ride along a dusty road— Flags 
and banners— A walnut grove— The orator— Picnic on the grass— The 
ubiquitous pie— Three times round the world for a nickel— Yankee 
Doodle by a left-handed violinist— Music and dancing. 



CONTENTS. XI. 



CHAPTER VI. 

LAND AND WATER, LAW AND ORDER. 

Prices of land— The land office — The free <;rants of land — The 
emigrant wagon — The emigrant wagon's return — Dropping into poetry 
— Colonization by families — Plenty of sun but a lack of water— Wells — 
The water witch — The divining rod — Prairie fires in the summer — 
Cyclones— Wild animals— Land leaguers — " Peaceable possession " — 
Revolver practice— A fatal fight between squatters — The evicted 
leaguers — Two brave boys — "One down t'other come on" — Assault and 
battery— Endless litigation — The lawyers — How to join the legal army 
— The jury system — A promiscuous jury — A J.P. chewing tobacco — 
Local murders — Self-defence— A sad case — A jury in the district court 
— The trial, and verdict of guilty — The country newspaper — Some 
well-intended i-emarks on it— The alteration in the appearance of the 
country. 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE SURPRISE PARTY. THE HOME JOURNEY, 

Preparations for the home-coming — Kindly feelings and their practical 
outcome — The surprise party — Host and hostess in curious position — 
The attempted speech — "Good bye" — Setting out for "home" — 
The State of Missouri — A night on a Pullman car — Indianapolis — A 
home of Henry Ward Beecher and President Harrison — The Wales of 
America— Pittsburgh by night— Philadelphia— Arrival at New York- 
Some places of interest — Talmage and his Tabernacle — On board ship — 
Intermediate and steerage passage compared — Insanity, death, and 
burial at sea — Landing at Liverpool, 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CONCLUSION. THE EMIGRATION QUESTION. 

Brief remarks on some of the farming States of America — The English 
labourer and his prospects— A Land Transfer Bill— A land office- 
Encourage the English rural population. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE RIDE TO KANSAS. 

T LEFT Liverpool, accompanied by my wife and child, 
to journey toward this Western State, on Tuesday, 
February 21st, on board the Inman line steamship, City of 
Paris. Scarcely had the ship left port when, owing to 
a dense fog, a slight collision occurred, to be followed 
immediately by another of a more serious nature, but how 
serious was not known to the passengers, no damage being 
done to our vessel. The fog at length cleared off, and there 
being then a clear look ahead timid passengers breathed 
more freely. The luggage — what a nuisance luggage always 
is ! Where can it be ? Surely it was brought in off the 
tender ? Stewards tell us to go below — we are steerage — 
as it is most likely to be found there. What a scene of 
confusion ! Young ladies trying to fit their keys into strange 
boxes ; young men gallantly coming to the rescue, and 
showing the mistake, and aiding in its rectification ; babies 
crying ;• older people sympathethic, and crying too ; people 
rushing hither and thither, having a dread suspicion that 
their luggage is either lost, stolen, or strayed; some leisurely 
eating pork pies and other viands, utterly oblivious to all 
around ; Germans trying to converse with Englishmen, 
waving their hands much, and poking the Englishmen in the 



SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 



chest ; steward stepping in and speaking German, and the 
foreigners gratified to find some one who can understand 
them. Everything is in a state of disorder — even the 
stomachs of some persons, thus early in the voyage. By 
dint of much patience — a most necessary article to bring 
with you — I found our packages, selecting such as were 
required on the voyage, and getting things in " ship shape," 
and in "sailing order" (nautical term excusable), when a 
man about forty years of age (name forgotten ; address — 
Emerald Isle) came up to me crying bitterly. Asking his 
cause for grief, I was told that he had been " rabbed of his 
praperty." His " praperty " was, in my mind, somehow 
mixed up with the Land League and the Land Act, and 
I asked who had supplanted the weeping Hibernian, and 
sent him howling from his native country ; and was greatly 
astonished to discover that the property was a trunk, in 
which he had deposited a new suit of clothes, with which 
he had intended to adorn himself at New York, to surprise 
some friends in affluent circumstances in that region. Later 
on, I found him on a box, singing bits from Moore's 
melodies, in a tone that a musical critic w^ould consider 
scarcely preferable to his crying. I presumed he had found 
his property : " Sorr," said he, "the Lord has favoured me." 
Before the voyage was over, he became very popular on 
board, and being of an amorous disposition, fell in love, 
and became defendant in an action for breach of promise 
to marry. The sham court of justice was presided over 
by the ship's purser, and the writer — who had considered 
himself a witness for the defence — was retained as counsel 
for the plaintiff, with a young Irish farmer as opposing 
counsel. A jury found a verdict for the plaintiff. The 



THE RIDE TO KANSAS. 



court was crowded, many of the members of the " Upper 
House " — the title given to the saloon — being spectators of 
the scene. This is given for what it may be worth before 
the due time, but I will not further mention our boisterous 
mirth, which was very plentiful after that dread scourge, to 
be mentioned presently, had passed over us. 

Queenstown was reached by noon on Wednesday, when 
our passengers were increased to 296. The vessel lay in 
the bay, passengers and mails being brought on a tender. 
At four o'clock orders were given to start, and the ship was 
turned completely round, and we " steered for the open 
sea." As night fell, the craggy rocks on the Irish coast were 
lost to view, and long before day dawned we were out of 
sight of land, and were sailing briskly over water a little 
rougher than we had hitherto experienced. Did ever any 
person go on the sea for the first time without being well 
stocked with instructions how to prevent sea sickness ? I 
was advised to eat nothing for the first three days ; to eat 
everything I could ; to have my meat well cooked ; and an 
admirer of Lord Byron recommended raw beaf steak. I 
was told to lie perfectly still ; and I was told to jump up 
and walk briskly on deck. All these remedies I tried — at 
intervals — but they were unavailing. Ginger beer was the 
only thing that seemed to give relief. Some passengers 
thought that sea sickness arose from injudicious consumption 
of bilious food, and resolved not to be sick ; but they found 
their stomachs as weak as their resolutions. Everything 
comes to an end, and so did this expectoration, and all went 
" as merry as a marriage bell." On Saturday night a large 
parcel of books was brought out and distributed. They 
were chiefly New York Christian papers, Bibles, and tracts, 



SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 



in various languages. These are eagerly sought after, and 
are read with much pleasure. In taking a walk round the 
tables I found Irish boys teaching Dutch girls to read 
English, but I fear with very poor success. This night, 
soon after retiring to rest (which we didn't get), the ship 
commenced rocking, and there was much noise caused by 
the crying of babies, the smashing of crockery, and the 
tumbling of forms, and of terrified passengers, who had got 
up to walk about. The vessel rocked and rocked — a 
veritable " cradle of the deep " — without intermission until 
morning. Sunday morning — people seemed anxious to get 
an extra good wash, and to go up on deck for that purpose. 
See this fellow — the tall one — picking his way along toward 
the water tap. He has a towel over his shoulder, a tin and 
soap in his one hand, and with the other he is holding on 
to the rail beside the cabin. He meets with another fellow 
returning with a little drop of the much-needed cleansing 
article. They are like the two goats on the narrow mountain 
pass — both loose the rail for each other to proceed, the ship 
gives a plunge, and down go the two men, sliding against the 
side of the ship, while the two bowls go careering merrily 
along the deck. The ship gives a backward plunge, and 
throws the two men "as you were," their nether extremities 
two feet apart. Having secured their tins, they decide to 
wash " when the sea is quieter." Sailors come along, and 
say " 'Tis nothing, nothing," and I suppose it is so. The 
vessel sinks down on the larboard side, hops back on the 
starboard, rises for'ard to sink astern, then rises astern to 
sink for'ard; passengers in most undignified positions — in 
fact, every conceivable position except standing steadily on 
their feet. At half-past ten the bell tolls for Divine service, 



THE RIDE TO KANSAS. 



which the captain conducts in the dining-room of the 
saloon ; and a few, a very few, attend. The wind ceases, 
and sails are once more hoisted, and we go on splendidly. 
On Wednesday the banks of Newfoundland are crossed, and 
soon after we pass large quantities of field ice, and one 
iceberg said to be fifteen feet high. We pass but few vessels — 
not more than one a day. Seagulls follow the ship almost 
the entire voyage, and it is a very pretty sight to see them 
swoop down in a flock to devour any small or large thing in 
the way of eatables which may be thrown overboard. One 
day we saw what were said to be flying fish, but they appeared 
to have a very strong dash of the bird about them, in the 
distance much like the common Enghsh moor-hen, I have 
mentioned that there were a number of Germans on board. 
Amongst these were a young couple named Gotz, accom- 
panied by their two little children. One little one, about a 
year old, fell ill with inflammation of the lungs, and, notwith- 
standing the application of a doctor's skill and the most 
careful attention of the mother and stewardess, it succumbed 
to the malady on the afternoon before the vessel came to 
her destination. It was expected that the body would not 
be buried at sea, but orders were given to the ship's carpenter 
to make the little coffin. In the evening the rude coffin 
and its contents were covered with a flag, and borne aft by 
two sailors to a platform erected at the ship's side. The 
ship's flag is raised half-mast high ; the sun is sinking, the 
bell tolling a mournful note ; the figure head is pointing 
onward ; young mothers press their little ones to hearts 
filled with gratitude for the preservation of their darlings 
from such a grave ; the passengers gather around, and not 
a sound is heard save a gentle wave dashing against the 



SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 



ship's sides, whilst the priest reads the Htany for the dead. 
The service ended, the corpse is dropped into the sea. The 
sun has set, and in setting has spread the dark shadow of 
the ship Hke a pall over the grave of the little one. The 
bell has ceased tolling, but the figure head is still pointing 
onward. 

On Saturday, March 4th (the nth day after leaving 
Liverpool), at day-break, land was sighted, being the first 
seen since leaving the coast of Ireland. Many passengers 
had risen at four o'clock, and, decked in their best, were as 
merry as school boys on a holiday morning. This careful 
and early toilet was quite unnecessary, as no one had a faint 
hope of leaving the vessel until afternoon, excepting a few 
officers, who got on the tender and went in with the mails. 
We arrived in Sandy Hook at 10 a.m., and as we sailed into 
the docks, a magnificent view was obtained of Brooklyn new 
bridge, over a mile long, spanning the East river, and of the 
town of Brooklyn, and City of New York. There was 
much consternation amongst passengers when they heard 
that the City of Berlin (which had left Liverpool a week in 
advance of the City of Paris) had not arrived. She carried 
about seven hundred passengers. Fears w^ere entertained 
as to her safety, but on Sunday — the day after the Paris 
arrived — she was towed into Boston harbour with her 
machinery disabled. She had been at the mercy of wind and 
wave for several days. I met with some of her passengers 
on my journey out West, who told me that there was quite 
a panic on board during the anxious suspense, which lasted 
until they were taken in tow by a passing vessel. But to 
return to our ship. The City of Paris was brought to 
anchor at the pier belonging to the Inman Company, and 



THE RIDE TO KANSAS. 



we marched past the doctor, like so many soldiers at a 
review. All being reported right, the Custom House officers 
came on board, and searched — not very diligently, I must 
say — the boxes for anything liable to duty. As each package 
was marked, a brass check was fastened to it by a strap, 
and a corresponding check was given to the owner (this is the 
case with luggage on the railroad, and is a most admirable 
system). Passengers and luggage were now on board a 
steam boat, which steamed down to Castle Garden. We 
landed, and were conducted into a large circular building, 
where we had to wait a little while. Round here to left is 
a refreshment bar. You go there to " get something," when 
you find that some of your friends are passing on through 
a narrow passage to another part of the building, and you 
follow. Here is a gentleman with a large book ; he is 
inquisitive. " Where do you come from ? What's your 
name ? Where are you going to ? Been here before ? Wife ? 
Name ? Child ? Name ? Pass on." The replies are written 
in the book, and all having orders to get railroad tickets are 
questioned on the subject, and are directed what steps to 
take to get them substituted by the proper ticket, together 
with the route they have to travel. We are all through now, 
in the enclosure we were so anxious to get into, and a 
gentleman mounts a rostrum, auctioneer fashion, and 
emigrants crowd round, eager bidders for any wares he may 
have for disposal ; but he shouts out through his nose 
further instructions for the guidance of his audience, such 
as the departure of trains, and of letters, &c., that may be 
awaiting the arrival of owners!; that persons expecting friends 
should wait for a while in the building; that persons desirous 
of remaining in the Garden until Monday can do so, free of 



8 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

charge, as there are no trains leaving for long distances until 
the afternoon of that day. (This is, as the reader may have 
observed, the evening of Saturday.) This latter accommo- 
dation several persons availed themselves of, as, though the 
lodgings were not of the best, they had the advantage of 
cheapness. All instructions were now issued, gates are 
thrown open, and in a flock a whole host of hotel proprietors, 
lodging-house-keepers, or their agents, with cards in their 
hats and others in their pockets, which set forth the peculiar 
advantages of the establishments they represent. These 
cards were distributed with utter impartiality. I had sufficient 
to play a hand of whist with had they been of a different kind. 
I had been recommended to a German house in Greenwich 
street, close to the Garden, whither a party of us wended 
our way, and found the excellence of the mode of conducting 
the establishment no ways exaggerated. The prices for a 
decent house range from a dollar to a dollar and a half 
per day for board and lodging. At the latter price the 
accommodation is very superior. We had scarcely settled 
in our comfortable abode before we had a slight experience 
of the innate desire of the American mind for information. 
One young gentleman, who said he w\ts the special reporter 
of the New York Morning Something (and perhaps he was), 
wished my opinion of winds. Now, I must confess to never 
having made winds my especial study, though I have now 
experienced their power, from the English summer breeze 
to the American cyclone. Still, I gave the young gentleman 
the benefit of my experience of winds in general, and of 
those felt in the Atlantic in particular, and he departed to 
the next new comer, with a look of satisfaction peculiarly 
gratifying to the interviewed. On Sunday, as we took a 



THE RIDE TO KANSAS. 



walk on this ^March morning, down an avenue leading from 
our hotel to the water, now sparkling in the sunlight, and 
felt the bright bracing air, with the little birds chirping a 
carol of welcome to spring, I could not help noticing that 
the weather the Americans kept for home consumption was 
superior to that exported to the British and Norwegian 
coasts {vide daily papers any time these last few years) ; but 
this impression, though firmly rooted at the time, has 
become eradicated. We wended our way in the direction 
of that magnificent building. Trinity Church, where we 
found many fine monuments to heroes of the American 
war. Sunday passed, and on Monday morning I went to 
the Castle Garden to inquire for the luggage, of which I 
had seen nothing since leaving the ship. I was shown mto 
a large warehouse, where there were hundreds of boxes and 
packages, of all colours, shapes, and sizes. I was introduced 
to a porter with a snuff-coloured moustache, who demanded 
my checks and nodded his head in the direction of the 
luggage, indicating that I must go amongst this maze of 
packages and select mine. This, after as much wandering 
as if I were looking over all the furniture rooms in Curtain 
Road for a single footstool, I succeeded in doing. My next 
difficulty was to find the gentleman wearing the snuff-coloured 
moustache. Every porter on the premises seemed to be a 
patron of that colour. How many times I asked the 
question, "Did I give you five checks?" and received the 
brief reply, " Guess not," I won't pretend to say. But at 
length I detected a man leaning against a post, " God bless 
the Duke of Argyll ! " (He had been watching me, no 
doubt, confound him !) I repeated my question. He had 
a habit of repeating the latter part of the question, like an 



lO SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

echo learning to talk. " Five checks. I presume so." " I 
have found my luggage ; will you go and fetch it?" Echo — 
" Go and fetch it. Guess I will." 'Tis a premeditated 
affair, evidently, for he guesses right. Previous to departure, 
the luggage, if of any considerable amount, is weighed. Now 
this operation, simple as it is, will be found very expensive. 
One hundred pounds is allowed on each third-class ticket. 
This was the case at New York, but on going further west I 
found that one hundred and fifty pounds was the allowance, 
and for every extra one hundred pounds a sum of five 
dollars and thirty-five cents was chargeable. This was for 
the extent of my journey — 1,400 miles. Emigrants will find 
that luggage, except in rare instances, will pay better to 
be left at home, as, not infrequently, the cost of carnage 
will exceed the actual value of the goods after they reach 
their destination. 

I find the American dollar to be a cumbrous coin, and as 
large, but no larger, than, the American palm. Yet even the 
fair damsel behind the refreshment counter, whose delicate 
hand would scarcely fill a six and a quarter glove, can as 
easily manage it as the more enlarged hand of toil, as 
evinced by her handing a very small amount of provisions 
and a few small and inferior coins in exchange for one. 
The lowest coin the Yankee trader seems at all disposed to 
stoop to is five cents. A glass of ale is five cents, and five 
cents to black a pair of boots, and I believe a shave is five 
cents (I wonder how a razor will travel so far, as in most 
instances it has to, for so small a sum), an orange five cents, 
and three apples are five cents. This latter fact is made 
known in what to the uninitiated is the inexplicit term of 
" Three for a nickel." 



THE RIDE TO KANSAS. IT 

But here we are again, steaming up the river, past pier 
after pier. We pass the City of Paris ; a few sailors answer 
our adieux, waved in pocket-handkerchiefs ; and we are 
landed at Jersey City, where our train starts. We are 
marched into a warehouse, amidst sundry packages of 
kerosene, canned beef, Staffordshire cuts, middles, long cut, 
hams, <S:c., which seem rolling about at the imminent risk of 
disabling any person with whom they may come in contact. 
Here we meet with some whose faces are familiar as fellow 
sea-passengers, who assure us they have been waiting since 
noon, and it is now five o'clock. An individual with a 
lanthorn informs me, on my interrogation, after spitting 
and leisurely ruminating, that he "guesses there won't be a 
train for quite a while." And " quite a while " it proves to 
be, for no train is visible until eight o'clock ; so passengers 
to the number of about 1,500 are kept wearily waiting. At 
length — at great length, for there are about fifty cars — the 
train draws up, and there is much clamouring for seats. 
These are arranged like desks, with the reversible backs, 
like seats at a village concert, and as they are placed 
uncomfortably close together, they evidently expect a large 
audience. Having seated ourselves on the cushionless seats, 
which appear to be made of the hardest wood American 
forests can produce, we feel ready for the performance, and 
when the conductor appears, he, instead of playing an 
overture or speaking a prologue, merely demands " Tickets." 
At one end of the car, which will seat about fifty persons, is 
a watertank and stove, and at the other end sanitary 
accommodation. A supply of provisions must be taken, or 
the passenger may experience the mutilation of the dollar in 
the manner 1 have just mentioned. If I mention one meal 



12 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

I prepared, perhaps a faint idea may be obtained of the 
difficulties attending that operation on board a railway train. 
(We take turns, on account of the baby, who, as fond 
mammas say, when speaking of the earlier pedestrian efforts 
of their little ones, is " beginning to go by the things.") 
The day is dawning, and I think it would be an excellent 
idea to prepare breakfast without rousing my sleeping 
partner ; so I get a small can, and fill it with water, put it 
in the stove, and return to see to the little one, who is doing 
no worse damage than tearing up the table-cloth — an 
American newspaper — which, by the way, is not the worst 
use it could be put to. Returning to my culinary duties, I 
find the can has lost half its contents. The tank is not a 
" never failing supply," so I have to go into the next car to 
obtain a little, and on my return I find my offspring has 
tested the sweetness of the sugar, and is busy washing 
himself in the condensed milk. I now look for the butter, 
which, after diving down in a box which smells like an 
underground chandler's shop, I discover, but reduced to a 
liquid state by the high temperature of the car. The bread, 
after being held under the bowl which contains the greasy 
hquid, appears — so my better half says — to have been 
dipped in salad oil. The coffee is at last ready, and I get a 
fresh relay of water to boil the eggs. Now where's the salt? 
All used up, or lost, doubtless. As there is none at hand, I 
go on a foraging expedition through the next car, taking my 
mischievous progeny under my arm. I make a successful 
raid, and return triumphantly with a little salt and a great 
deal of pepper, too, by the way. The viands are spread, 
and, in newspaper parlance, are done "ample justice to." 
But I digress. The bell, which is affixed over the boiler of 



THE RIDE TO KANSAS. I3 

the engine, rings, and a sudden jerk informs us that we are 
on our journey '* Westward, Ho ! " It is now nearly ten 
o'clock, and the train is going steadily along the N.Y.C. and 
H.R.R. These mysterious letters represent " New York 
Central and Hudson River Railroad." As the night far 
advances, we are rattling along by the broad Hudson river, 
in the direction of Buffalo. The passengers — at least, the 
majority — have got uncomfortably asleep, reclining against 
the windows, wrapped in shawls or rugs, or coiled up on the 
seats, like hedgehogs ; others lying at full length across the 
aisle of the car, at the risk of being roused from their 
slumbers by some individual, who, unaware of their presence, 
may take a walk along the car. Some have fallen asleep 
over a newspaper or a sandwich, which in their unconscious 
state, they have let drop on the floor. The conductor comes 
so often with the bogey cry of " Tickets " that one almost 
thinks he lies in ambush behind the stove, and rushes out 
as soon as ever one commences worshipping at the shrine 
of Morpheus. He feeds his hungry punch so often that the 
tickets are literally pieces of perforated card-board, like love- 
sick maidens use to make book-markers for single curates. 
As daylight appears, the scene without is not, from an 
agricultural point of view, particularly pleasing or inviting. 
Here and there is a rude log hut, with but a small amount 
of anything exhibiting the prosperity with which America is 
associated to the average English mind. ^Much of the land 
is cleared of timber, whilst several acres are in a state of 
cultivation, with the stumps of trees still standing. In other 
places large trees lie rotting on the sodden earth. But I 
was told that to judge of the country from the land through 
which this railroad passes would be doing a great injustice 



14 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

to New York State. We pass Syracuse (N.Y.), and reach 
the town of Rochester by nightfall. A slight delay here, 
and passengers seize the opportunity, whilst the train is not 
in motion, to refresh the inner man. " Now, Bill," says the 
conductor to the porter, " got the Buffalos all seated ? " 
William makes an affirmative reply, and we once more 
" move on," reaching Buffalo by midnight. Distance, four 
hundred miles ; time, twenty-six hours, giving the grand 
average of about fifteen miles an hour. We start for 
Cleveland (Ohio), crossing a part of Pennsylvania, and 
arriving at Cleveland about six o'clock on Wednesday 
morning. The train stops sufficiently long for the passengers 
to scald their throats with hot coffee and leave small change 
on the counter. I should have mentioned that the tickets 
draw out like a tailor's pattern book, the lower pattern, or 
rather section, denoting the first stage of the journey, say 
New York to Buffalo ; the next, Buffalo to Toledo, and so 
on. Each section of the ticket is given up on arriving at 
the end of the corresponding stage, and where a change of 
cars take place. Passing along, curious and mysterious 
advertisements meet the traveller's eye. Painted on the 
railway fence would be recommendations to " Cut navy 
plug," " Smoke little joker," " Use gargling oil," etc., etc. 
The " navy plug " caused me to ruminate a little, but an 
individual set my mind at rest by drawing from his pocket 
an innocent looking packet, off which he took the paper 
bearing the mysterious appellation. It was undoubtedly a 
brand of the " weed," for he cut it with his knife first and 
his teeth afterwards. At a small station in the state of Ohio 
was an imposing placard, bearing this announcement, 
" Notice. — Wanted, constant loafers to stand in front of this 



THE RIDE TO KANSAS. 1 5 

window and lean up against the building. Must be on hand 
on all trains," As there was no mention of the remuneration 
to be received for the performance of these arduous duties, 
I fear the applications were not very numerous. 

Our route lies now along the shore of lake Erie to Toledo, 
at which town we arrived by noon. After a six hours' delay 
we once more resume our journey through the states of 
Illinois and Indiana, in the direction of St. Louis. As this 
journey was performed by night, I was disappointed in not 
having even a passing glimpse at a part of America with 
names so familiar to Herefordshire readers as the adopted 
home of Hereford cattle. We cross the renowned St. Louis 
bridge, spanning the Mississippi — whose floods were at that 
time making such devastation along its banks — and arrive at 
the Union Depot soon after daybreak on Thursday morning, 
to hear the unpleasant announcement that no train would 
leave for the West until twelve hours later. As I took a 
walk through the muddy streets of the town, I felt that if 
that enterprising body, the Hereford town council, were 
transported there, their first act would be to convene a 
meeting for the purpose of considering the best mode of 
improving the streets. Crossing sweepers and mud carts 
seemed to be institutions unheard of. But, notwithstanding 
the dirty and uncomfortable aspect of the place, it is a most 
important market for the Western States, for corn, meat, hay, 
and wool. The Union Depot is a fine building, and the 
accommodation very fair, but I think some little better 
arrangement could be made for the departure of trains, 
passengers to the number of about a thousand having to 
remain from early morning till late at night, and, being 
unprovided with provisions, thrown on the mercy of keepers 



1 6 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

of refreshment bars, where, as I mentioned, viands are very 
dear. To families bound from East to West— in many 
instances mechanics or labourers with large families and 
limited means — this arrangement is very inconvenient. I 
may mention that it is not the case with passengers travelling 
at reduced rates alone, but to those who have paid the full 
third-class fare. Night came at last, as did the trains, which 
caused a rush amongst the weary expectant passengers, who 
in their excitement scrambled into the first car that came to 
hand, at the risk of being borne back to their place of 
departure. Starting out in the night, passengers fall asleep 
and dream of destinations, and wake to find the train rattling 
beside the Missouri river. Sedalia is reached by noon, there 
is a brief delay, and we again move in the direction of 
Kansas. Missouri will be remembered as the state in which 
Messrs. Gudgell & Simpson have their fine herd of imported 
Herefords. The negro conductor walks from car to car 
intimating that the next stopping place is Fort Scott, by which 
I know that I have finished my " Ride to Kanas." 




CHAPTER II. 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 

A FTER a brief stay with friends in Fort Scott, we resumed 
our journey, arriving at our destination late at night. We 
had been advised to get our baggage left at a depot farther 
back, and to ahght at a spot on the prairie situated near a 
friend's house. The conductor called out " Here you air ! '* 
The train came to a standstill and we alighted. The 
bell on the engine rang, and, the train moved on across the 
prairie and left us alone in our glory. It being spring time 
the frogs and turtles were making night hideous with their 
hoarse croaking and shrill whistlings ; one light alone shone 
out through the darkness, and this to our eyes appeared 
many miles distant. Presently we discerned a building 
near us, and resolved to go and ask for admittance, but to 
our dire dismay we found it was not inhabited. A match 
struck and held to one of the windows revealed the fact that 
it was a house in course of erection, as the floor was strewn 
with shavings. We decided to break in, gather up the 
shavings, lay our rugs and blankets on the floor, and lie until 
daybreak. I had already commenced operations as an 
amateur burglar when we heard the sound of horse's hoofs 
splashing through the mud, and I had the pleasure of hearing 
my name called out. It proved to be our friend with a 
buggy and two spirited horses. They had been on the look 

2 



l8 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

out for US for several days, and had of course heard the train 
stop, and as passengers getting off at that time of night on 
the prairie were not very numerous they rightly guessed the 
meaning of the ringing of the train bell. We were soon into 
the buggy, and were trotting along through mud and water 
in the direction of the light just mentioned, which was only 
a little over half-a-mile away. Arriving at the house we met 
with a warm welcome, but the interior of the American 
home, no matter how tastefully arranged, is to an Englishman 
somewhat cheerless. The fine cooking stove with its bright 
pots and pans, — all indicating something good for the 
inner man — the fierce heat that it throws over the entire 
room, this does not compare with the bright cheerful fire 
irons and fender, — to say nothing of the brass candlesticks 
and the pestle and mortar on the mantelpiece — of the 
Englishman's kitchen. The bed providedforus was much more 
comfortable than our contemplated one of shavings, rugs, and 
blankets, and although the frogs croaked and a cow with a 
bell fastened to her neck kept up a continual " clang " as 
she chewed her cud in the yard close by, our slumbers were 
of the most peaceful and undisturbed nature. At daylight I 
looked out on the country in which, as emigration agents say, 
" The sturdy yeoman or the agricultural labourer who has 
been down-trodden in the old country, can breathe the pure 
air of Freedom, and become the independent owner of a 
fine home, and be a free and enlightened citizen of the 
grandest country on earth." With this beautiful description 
of the prairie country still in my mind I should have felt like 
Moses viewing the promised land from Mount Pisgah. Out 
to the westward was a fine stretch of unfenced prairie, 
sufficiently undulating to have much of beauty ; a few houses 



FIRST IMPRESSIONS. I9 

painted white were dotted here and there, the windows now 
reflecting the red Hght of the rising sun. A sight truly worth 
seeing, is the sun rising in a cloudless sky, sending long 
shadows of the few objects on the level plain. To the south 
was a small grove of trees, through which the creek ran, and 
this was the only timber visible excepting the young orchards 
of apples and peach trees which the settlers had planted. 
A truly magnificent country andfair to look upon; but one 
thing was lacking — there was not one vestige of a green leaf 
anywhere. This did not strike me so much at first, but it 
became a painful reality to myself and many other prairie 
farmers in after years. A walk over the land was equally 
satisfactory : the deep black or red soil which turned up and 
crumbled from the plough, like a bed of ashes, was a strange 
contrast to our hard clay soil, which at times is impervious 
to heavy roller, plough or harrow. Two light horses, 
something like our English half-breeds, could walk briskly 
along, turning a fourteen-inch furrow and doing from two to 
two and a half acres a day. I thought surely that Douglas 
Jerrold must have been right when he said " you just tickle 
the earth with the hoe, and it laughs into harvest." But I will 
ask the reader to bear in mind that this chapter is written 
under the head of " first impressions." The breed ot cattle 
were much better than could have been expected, and shows 
how beneficial have been the selection of some of our sires 
and dams, and exporting them to the Western prairies. The 
horses were of a light description, but nearly every farmer 
was convinced that there was more money in raising a 
heavier breed of horses as there is a great demand for that 
class, for street and railroad work. The hogs — nearly all 
of a black breed — were of a class that showed much care in 



20 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

breeding, and the hog is regarded in Western America as 
the great mortgage-lifter; as in the Emerald Isle he is "the 
jintleman that pays the rint."' Mules are also raised 
extensively and are used for all farm work, and fetch high 
prices, generally more money than horses. 

All new comers to prairie society receive a hearty welcome, 
and we certainly had no reason to complain of our reception 
at the hands of Americans, as well as English people. After 
the cheery " Happy to make your acquaintance " came the 
question — "Well, what do you think of this country anyway?" 
which was met by the reply that I thought it was a very fine 
country indeed. " Did not I think that this was destined to 
be the greatest country on earth ?" I certainly saw nothing 
to prevent the country attaining that exalted positign. The 
Americans are proverbially a patriotic people, and all visitors 
are asked their opinion of the country. They are quite 
"child-like and bland" on this point. And it is not 
advisable for an Englishman to assert himself and his nation- 
ality too aggressively. We are apt sometimes to err in this 
particular, and it leads to misunderstandings, and causes a 
little friction and prevents that happy commingling of 
nationalities, which is absolutely necessary to peace and 
comfort in prairie society. Englishmen are received most 
cordially, but a little unguarded and unfavourable criticism 
is sometimes taken in anything but good part, and 
the wounded American will blurt out — " Well, why in 
thunder did'nt you stop there, if that country was such a 
mighty fine place?" But they will take a great mteiest in 
information about English manners and customs, providing 
such information is not given as unfavourable comparison 
with their own. 



FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 



One bright, sunny morning soon after our arrival we drove to 
a town some ten miles distant. In driving along the straight 
roads — all roads are straight here — 1 found that the land was 
divided into sections of one square mile, each section being 
bounded by a road, so that travelling in a straight line we 
found a cross-road at the end of each mile. These sections 
are sub-divided into quarter sections, containing one hundred 
and sixty acres each, so that when we read of a settler being 
entitled to one hundred and sixty acres under the Homestead 
law, it will be seen that one section is divided into four 
farms of that size. 

The houses were not at all uniform in size or colour, their 
demensions corresponding rather with the length of the 
settler's purse and the size of his family. In some instances, 
with all this abundance of room — as far as land was 
concerned — a whole family of six or eight persons would be 
crowded into one room of twelve or fourteen feet square, 
a small shed in some instances being attached, where the 
cooking stove would be put in during the summer months, 
for the sake of convenience and comfort. Other houses 
were of a better description, consisting of four or six rooms, 
two stories high, neatly painted white — or lead colour in 
most cases — a neat barn and shed erected for cattle and 
horses, and other small buildings around, all of which 
gave evidence of thrift and comfort. Much land was still 
unfenced, and was covered with a fleece of grey prairie grass. 
This land was chiefly owned by speculators in the Eastern 
States, who were awaiting a " boom " in the price of land. 
It is over this unsettled land that prairie fires sweep and 
cause such devastation among the houses of the settlers in 
thinly populated districts. The grass burns readily, and, 



22 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

. -^ • 

should care not have been taken to plough narrow strips of 
land around the house, buildings, or haystacks, a fire coming 
with a strong wind will do much damage, as it is uncontrollable, 
and sometimes a flame will rise before the wind, then swoop 
and reach over these fire breaks and go blazing madly along, 
burning everything, and leaving a barren, black, smoking 
track behind it. 

As we passed on nearer to the town, I had an introduction 
to its store-keepers through numerous advertisements painted 
on the board fencing. These enterprising tradesmen had 
utilized every available spot to recommend their goods to 
the traveller. We were advised to go to Crump's for 
" Coffins, Caskets, Shrouds," or anythmg in the funeral hne, 
as he was selling low, for cash. " Mc Cann and O'Leary 
were ready to sell us cloaks, dolmans, hosiery, and other dry 
goods and notions." Dry goods and notions in America, 
correspond with drapery and fancy articles in England. 
" Little Joker Tobacco runs away with the world, Perkins, 
the quiet grocer, sells it." " Broser & Rosser want your 
produce in exchange for groceries." " Go to the Busy Bee 
dining rooms for a good square meal." Even capitalists use 
this mode of advertising, and we were told that "Bowlus loans 
money." But alas ! " relentless fate," for the wind had made 
sad havoc of the fence in some places, and the literature 
was as jerky reading as a dictionary. As the prairie farmer 
is not generally a good compositor, in repairing his fence 
he had in some instances turned the whole thing upside 
down, and in others, had placed the boards in such a curious 
position, that the advertisements would be so distorted, 
that a sight of them would be enough to make the store- 
keeper's hair stand on end. Fancy this for instance, " money 



FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 23 



loaned on — coffins, caskets, and shrouds — improved farms 
at a low rate of interest. Call and see me. J. Smith." 
Arriving in town — a town which I was told was shortly to 
be the metropolis of the West, and it would be well to 
purchase town lots, as a rise in price was expected. They 
are all in that flourishing condition — we took our team, 
perspiring as they were, up to the water trough in the 
street, and let them drink their fill, then turned round and 
tied them up to the hitching posts which are fixed on the 
streets for that purpose. 

The streets were abominably dirty. It was extremely 
difficult to get across the board foot-path in front of the stores, 
as we were at times shoe-deep in the dirtiest and most clinging 
kind of mud. This was a first experience ; they now have 
the streets graded up, have drawn gravel from the river and 
spread over them, taken up the old broken rotten boards 
that served as a side-walk, and laid nice broad paving stones, 
and have in others ways prepared to receive visitors. The 
buildings were as far from being uniform as were those in 
the country. A neat stone or brick building, two stories 
high, would have, on either side of it, a little low dingy 
looking wooden store. Some buildings were in course of 
erection, and were of stone, the owners having become 
satisfied that the town was "there to stay." The store- 
keepers were looking deliciously unbusiness-like. Sitting 
near the stove with his heels upon a coffee box, his hand 
clasped over his head, was the proprietor of the store we first 
entered. He turned to my companion, called him by his 
Christian name — which I found to be the common mode ; if 
it can be abbreviated, so much the better — and asked him if 
there was "something he want to get." "Yes, let me make you 



24 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

acquainted with my English friend." This brought him to 
his feet, and there was no lack of warmth in his greeting. 
If there is one thing, the American — either male or 
female — can do better than another, it certainly is making a 
stranger feel at home on an introduction. They are cold, 
distant, uncouth, aye boorish, until you can establish some 
sort of friendship, then at once the manner changes, and the 
man you thought the most intolerable boor in Christendom, 
becomes a most agreeable conversationalist. Of course 
business must be attended to, so after a pleasant chat he 
went behind the counter, and leisurely waited on his 
customers, who like himself, appeared to be in no hurry. 
At twelve o'clock the dinner bell rang, and we followed the 
crowd and went to get a square meal. The plates are turned 
upside down on the table, the napkin is in the tumbler, you 
take your seat. Presently the tray is brought in ; being 
unused to this sort of thing you think that the waiter has at 
least brought half a dozen dinners, but to your astonishment 
he sets all the litde dishes in a semi-circle in front of you. 
One contains the potatoes, another the meat — always fried 
steak — another the sweet potato, another the cabbage, and 
so on. I counted seven of these little dishes. After all, 
came in the inevitable pie. As we are in a state were 
" prohibition " prohibits the sale and manufacture of 
intoxicating liquors, we take tea, coffee, or water, according 
to choice. As I have at different times tried all three, I find 
without exception that the coffee is delicious, the tea 
wretchedly bad, the water — well, tasteless. Before we 
returned home, the sun had set, and darkness spread over 
the land, only lighted up here and there, by the prairie fires, 
which were lighting up the heavens like so many blast 



FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 



25 



furnaces. As we approached, the flames in some places 
became visible. It was a strange weird sight to one's 
unaccustomed eyes ; this strange light which only served to 
make the darkness more dense near us, whilst the various 
sounds of frogs, turtles, and crawfish, broke in on the stillness 
of the night ; the stars peeping out, and the moon rising, 
looking as red as the fires that were crackling and blazing 
across the land. This was a sight, the impression of which 
cannot be erased while life lasts. 

Prairie fires are set out at night to burn the grass off, for a 
two-fold reason : the grass is somewhat damp, and therefore 
will not burn so freely, and the. wind is generally still after 
nightfall, and it is necessary to burn all the dead grass off, if 
the land is wanted for mowing or grazing purposes. 




CHAPTER III. 



STOCK AND CROPS. 

"DEFORE I could commence farming operations it was 
'^ necessary to purchase a span of horses. As it was 
getting late in the season — we arrived on IMarch nth, 1882 — 
this was no easy task. The country not very thickly pop- 
ulated, no markets or fairs to attend, and spare horses being 
very scarce. 

We had a look over the livery stable in town where 
there were horses of every description — except what 
was wanted — for sale. These were held at various prices, 
ranging from ;^'8 to ;£'2o. On examining their mouths I 
found some with teeth as long as one's finger, others almost 
toothless. The proprietor was a sharp, dapper little fellow 
who could talk hke an English cheap jack, but whose 
knowledge of either the age or soundness of a horse was of 
very limited description. " Now here's a young mar', mighty 
fine mar', seven-eighths Clydesdale, one-eighth Norman," he 
said, leading out a poor old spavined specimen of very 
questionable ancestry, " Her age, sir ? you want the truth. 
That mar', sir, is just eight years old this spring." This in 
a most confidential tone, as though this dilapidated piece of 
horse-flesh had been selected, fed, pampered, and held in 
reserve especially as a favour to me. " The price, sir ? I 



STOCK AND CROPS. 27 



am holding that mar' just one even hundred dollars — ninety- 
nine dollars and ninety-nine cents won't fetch her." The 
mare was not what I was looking for, so was taken back and 
put in her stall. " Now here's a horse, well, he is a plug 
horse. I'll take just fifty dollars for him." I didn't want 
the horse. Have you anythmg young, I enquired, either 
horse or mare? "Young, sir? Yes sir, there's the Tim 
Stow horse. That horse was sold last week to young Jake 
Roberts, who runs old man Biggs's daughter, expecting the 
old man to pony up, but he didn't ; the boy could'nt raise 
the money so the fellow was left with the horse on his hands. 
I bought the horse, and I will sell that horse to you, 
sir, for just one even hundred — nothing less will touch 
him." I bought the horse, and not even " custom luck " was 
returned out of the £20^ as this is a thing unheard of 
aniongst the western men. As this was the only horse in the 
stable that was suitable, I was advised try my luck among 
the prairie farmers. A friend and I rode many miles in 
search of a horse. We were shewn weedy colts that were 
unfit for work, horses and mares that had seen better days. 
We enquired, of course, and everybody without exception 
knew where we should find what was required. Americans 
always tell you something, which m.ay be reliable or otherwise 
— in some cases the animals had been sold, in others they 
were such as would be dear at the price of a new halter. 
We were at last told where a horse could be found, and this 
time we were not disappointed. The price was ninety-five 
dollars. At this juncture I was introduced to a description 
of settlers' life — of which I will deal in a subsequent chapter, 
viz. — " life in the squatter's shanty." The owner of the 
house was a land leaguer, his house — which was probably 



28 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

built in a few hours and brought on the piece of land at 
night — was about twelve feet square, a bed in one side of 
the room, a cooking stove on the other (the stove-pipe 
extending through the roof), two ricketty chairs and a still 
more ricketty table. A man, his wife, one child, a dog, and 
two cats, completed the animate and inanimate occupants of 
the room. It being near noon we were invited to stay and 
eat dinner. The wife fried a little bacon and a few eggs — 
she had to wait a few minutes for the latter as the hens were 
somewhat tardy in laying — she boiled a pot of tea, set some 
very black sugar on the table and also a dish of fried onions. 
We were asked to sit up, which we did, on the bed, it 
looked more comfortable and safe than the chairs. A 
composition of corn-meal mixed with water and known as 
" corn dodger," was laid on the table to serve as bread. 
Dipping the spoon into the " untasted " dish I found that 
what I had mistaken for fried onions proved to be saurkraiit^ 
really in this instance rottcji cabbage. 

I named the two horses Codlin and Short. Mares I found 
in much demand, as horse-breeding is a very lucrative business, 
and farmers will hardly ever sell a good breeding mare for any 
consideration. Mules too are raised and yield a good 
profit. They are hardy and will get over a large amount of 
work. The British Government purchased a number of mules 
in Kansas City for the Egyptian Campaign, costing ;^3o each, 
which were afterwards sold in Woolwich for ;£"io, a clear loss 
of ^20 a head, the American would think, as he would 
not think the crushing of Arabi Pasha worth a cent. The 
Kansas farmer can certainly beat the English War Depart- 
ment on a mule deal. Mules often grow to sixteen hands 
in height, and as Josh Billings would say, thick in proportion. 



STOCK AND CROPS. 29 



This hybrid animal — which, as every one knows, is the product 
of the Spanish donkey and draught mare — is the butt of the 
American humourist. The authority quoted above says he 
has seen them Hve a hundred years and not half try, and 
testifies to their sure-footedness by asserting that he has seen 
them kick twice in the same place, and stand ten feet off the 
mark. I saw one pair which were sold for ;^6o, but as I 
never owned a mule nor had any inclination that way, I will 
do, as Abraham Lincoln said, when he was told a traitor was 
about to escape to England — Let him slide ! 

Hogs are, as I have previously mentioned, very carefully- 
bred and attended to. The breed most favoured in Kansas 
is known as the Poland-China, and are exceedingly neatly 
grown ; not large weights, but come to maturity early. As 
regards the name it signifies nothing, as I find on investigating 
their pedigree that they are neither known in Poland or China. 

The Cattle show much indication of improved breeding. 
There are a few herds of pure-bred "Herefords, but the prices 
asked for bulls were out of the reach of the average farmer. 
It was somewhat curious to notice in a herd of cattle that 
one or two would have a white face and other markings, the 
same as this popular breed ; yet the coat, flesh and skin 
would tell a practised eye or hand that if there ever was any 
Hereford in the animal, the blood was much diluted and 
must be very thin. Shorthorns and Durhams were the 
breeds that had made the most impression on the native 
cattle, and it was not uncommon to see really good cows, 
though on the wide ranges where bulls of the Hereford 
breed had been sent by men of capital to the large herds, 
Hereford blood had been very influential in forming a hardy 
flesh-forming lot of cattle. Cows and calves were often as 



30 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

low in price as ;^5, and seldom reaching over ^8 the 
pair. 

Sheep could be scarcely considered a profitable class of 
stock for the prairie, as the grass drying up in September, 
necessitated a long period of feeding. 

The piece of land which had been selected for me 
to obtain my first experience of prairie farming, was 
a fine open field fifty acres in extent, and had been in 
cultivation about ten years. It was now covered in 
corn stalks, having grown a crop of Indian corn the year 
previous. These stood up about five feet high. The 
soil was black and deep on the greater portion of the 
field, whilst another part was red and shallow, the plough 
occasionally striking a rock, and as Codlin and Short were 
a pair of good walkers, the plough handles would sometimes 
tickles one unpleasantly in the short ribs. To give an 
Englishman some idea how fast we got over work in the 
West, I may here mention that the whole piece was ploughed 
and planted with corn and flax in less than two months, 
and only one pair of horses used. Indian corn is the 
staple crop of Kansas. This is planted in rows three feet 
eight inches apart — this space is left for the purpose of 
cultivation — as it is necessary to keep " working " it, keeping 
the mould loose and the weeds down. Flax is also sown 
in the spring. The rain came in good season ; the corn 
came up nicely. A very pleasing prospect is the young 
corn in a large field, the rows being sometimes a quarter 
or half a mile in length ; and though the prairie farmer 
cares little or nothing about straight ploughing, he will 
plant his corn as " straight as a rush." After June came in 
we began to have the thunder storms, the rain would 



STOCK AND CROPS. ' 3 1 

descend in torrents, and a creek that was almost dry would 
be filled to overflowing in a very few hours. We had 
celebrated the fourth of July, and at this period of the year 
it can be told pretty accurately whether the corn crop will 
be a good one or otherwise. If there is a very heavy rain 
at this time, and the corn tolerably forward, there is every 
reason to expect a crop ; but if it is dry and no indication 
of rain, it is somewhat dubious. This, my first year, the 
"prospect was pleasing," and I could hardly venture to 
assert that "man was vile." Had I written a letter to a 
newspaper at that time, I should have advised my sisters, 
my cousins, and my aunts to charter a special ship and 
come and bring every person they could persuade to leave 
the old country, as this is, indeed, the land flowing with 
milk and honey. On the evening of July loth, I took a 
walk up my corn field, reached the other end, and looked 
across toward the setting sun. The sight was one of simple 
grandeur. The stalks were now now about five feet high, 
covered with massive dark green foliage. The perfect 
stillness — not a leaf seemed to be moving — the heated 
atmosphere made a strange feeling of awe steal over me. 
New to the country and climate, I little knew that this was 
the harbinger of a coming storm. A cloud in the north- 
east appeared, getting larger and larger, and of inky black- 
ness. I reached the house before it began to rage. A 
strong wind came up, — at times these storm clouds bring 
nothing but wind, at other times divide and go over a large 
area and do no damage. Not so, this one. The sun had 
set and it had become quite dark. The thunder rolled, the 
lightning flashed, becoming one continued flickering light. 
Then was heard a sound like the incessant crackins: of 



32 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

rifles. It was what we had most reason to fear at that 
period of the year — a destructive hailstorm. The wind was 
terrific ; there was a look of terror in every face, we 
expected every moment to see the house dashed to pieces, 
but the storm ceased even more suddenly than it came, 
and we remained unscathed ; many panes of glass were 
smashed, and our first thought was of our neighbours, and we 
looked out to see if their lights were still burning, and felt 
thankful to see they were. Next morning the country 
looked the picture of desolation. I have attempted to 
describe the picture of the corn fields the previous evening, 
but what a change now, not one of the beautiful handsome 
green leaves remained, and the stalks — where not cut off at 
the ground — were as bare as the last year's stalks were 
when I commenced ploughing. The whole summer's work 
seemed wasted ; what had taken four months of hard work 
to bring thus far, totally destroyed in one half hour. 
Though this ruin and desolation was caused in our im- 
mediate neighbourhood, a short distance away the crop 
stood untouched, as the track the storm went over was 
only about one mile wide, and it was even possible to find 
exactly where it commenced to do damage. A few^ build- 
ings were blown down, and others moved from their 
foundations, but the storm was not attended by any loss 
of life. The corn started afresh in some places, and I 
managed to gather about eight bushels to the acre; the 
flax, which was injured also, making about three bushels. 
Judging by other crops in the neighbourhood, the corn 
would have yielded forty bushels, and the flax nine bushels 
to the acre. 

The corn is ripe and fit for husking in October. This 



STOCK AND CROPS. 33 



must be done by hand, as Yankee ingenuity has not yet 
devised a machine to take the ear off the stalk, although it 
is asserted that there is a standing offer of a prize of two 
thousand dollars for the inventor of such a machine. 

Perhaps one of the .most serious drawbacks to the 
western country is the absence of sufficient rain. The 
atmosphere is very dry, and the effects of a heavy rain, 
followed by a wind, will soon disappear. Millet is sown, 
and cut, and cured for hay, and many acres of prairie grass 
are mown, and is good cattle feed, but has no very nutritious 
properties. The surplus hay is pressed and sent by rail to 
St. Louis and other points. Hogs and cattle are purchased 
by local dealers or shippers, and are sold by live weight ; 
the reckoning is very easy, as it is so much per hundred, 
and as one hundred cents make a dollar, five cents a pound 
would be five dollars per hundred. There has been an 
attempt to get farmers to sell by weight in this country, but 
as long as it requires one hundred and twelve pounds to 
make a hundred weight, and our mode of reckoning is still 
to be by £ s. d., this will be extremely difficult ; but as no 
persons take a greater interest than Americans in the weight 
of cattle exhibited at our Fat Stock Shows, I think, out of 
deference to them, it would be well to give the w^eight in 
pounds, as is done in America, instead of tons, cwts., qrs., 
and lbs, as they have much difficulty in getting at the 
weight of a beast after it is published. 

Taxation may be considered light as far as the poor man 
is concerned, as he is entitled by law to at least ;£ioo in 
personal property before he becomes liable to any tax at 
all, save the poll tax. This tax amounts to three dollars, 
and a man is required to work on the road two days, or 



34 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

with his team one day ; this applies only to males over 
twenty-one, and under forty-five years of age. The assessor 
— an officer elected every year in the township — makes a 
house to house visitation, and not only values the property, 
but is a sort of census taker in a small way, as he takes the 
householder's name, age, birth-place, etc. 




CHAPTER IV. 



RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL LIFE. 

*T^HE amount of levity as regards religious matters, often 
noticeable in American newspapers, would lead some 
persons to suppose that religion was a matter thought lightly 
of by the American people generally, and by the pioneers 
of prairie life in particular. But when it is remembered 
that all religious services are of a voluntary nature, and are 
conducted by the request, and at the expense of the con- 
gregations, it will be seen that there must be some fountain 
from whence springs a desire for worshipping the one 
true God. . The result is, that out in these sparsely settled 
districts, the school-houses are utilized for Sunday schools, 
and for holding religious services. Should there be a 
sufficient number of any one denomination to engage a 
minister to preach occasionally, they obtain the services of 
one, give him his board and lodging from Saturday to 
Monday, and give, I fear, rather scanty pay. Here is 
particularly noticeable the evils of the great divisions in the 
church ; should all be agreed to engasje and support one 
minister, services could be held every Sunday, and the 
pastor of the flock be well paid, but under the present 
system, each denomination likes to have its own minister 
occasionally, and so one helps to impoverish the other, 



36 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

without, I think, adding much to the harmony and reUgious 
welfare of the community. And whilst much can, and will 
be said against the English Church establishment, I would 
prefer it to the system prevalent in America, at least as far 
as country districts are concerned. Still, it mattered not by 
what name the preacher designated himself, he was always 
welcomed, and was sure of a good attendance. A minister 
visiting a district or even a town, was always asked to preach. 
The American people do not believe in permitting talent to 
lie dormant. A clergyman, who travelled through the 
States for the benefit of his health, informed me that he was 
repeatedly asked to conduct a service, though ordered by 
medical advisers to take perfect rest. It is not uncom- 
mon in these meetings to see Episcopalians, Presbyterians, 
Baptists, Methodists, and Lutherans all seated together. 
But even here the Roman Catholic would not join, or 
even allow his children to attend Sunday school. Sunday 
schools are the life and soul of all religious progress, and 
are attended by old and young. The International lessons 
are studied, so that go in what school you may, you would 
find the scholars going through the same lesson. Kansas 
is nothing if not progressive, and believes that education 
oils the wheels of progress ; therefore the school system is 
excellent. Schools are free to all children from the age of 
five to twenty-one years, and oftentimes a teacher would 
have scholars older than himself. A young person — male 
or female — desirous of becoming a teacher would of course 
devote as much time as possible to study in the district 
school, afterwards attend the normal school of the county 
for one month, then came the examination, all who came 
up to a fixed standard received a certificate ; the lowest 



RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL LIFE. 37 

certificate was the third grade, and with this the holder 
would be qualified to teach school, if he could be so 
fortunate as to find a district school, the managers of which 
would permit him to try his " 'prentice han'." After 
teaching his term of a few winter months, he perhaps would 
attend some other school as a pupil, returning again to 
the Normal for the month's training, and, as he had 
taught one term, to receive a second-grade certificate. 
Going through the same routine the next year he would 
reach the first grade, and the certificate would do for 
more than one year, but after that time had elapsed, he 
would again attend the Normal, and have the certificate 
renewed. It was not uncommon to find teachers old 
and grey in the service studying at these schools, with all 
the attention and hopefulness of youth. Country teachers 
receive from £6 to £^ per month, for, on an average, 
seven months. After his term is over, he may return to 
his farm, or his merchandise, or what not. A school 
district is formed in the rural districts as ~soon as there are 
fifteen persons of school age, and providing there is no 
school within a moderate distance; the result is that school- 
houses are quite plentiful. Each little district manages its 
own business, agrees upon the amount of salary, the grade 
and sex of the teacher, the length of term, and other 
matters. But it took us a long time to agree^ for we put 
motions which were carried, and motions that were lost, 
moved the previous question, and the poor " Cheerman " 
would stammer out, " Well, the question is — what is the 
question?" Mr. Chairman in shirt sleeves — for it was always 
sweltering hot — would mop his brow and call out, " Now 
gentlemen, Order ! Order ! let's perceed to business." But 



38 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

it was useless, for the company, perhaps only a dozen of 
us, would be having a quiet debate in twos and threes, and 
finally, after half an hour's talk, we should agree upon the 
momentous question of putting up a few posts around the 
school-yard to tie horses to. There was always some 
refractory member, who had conspicuous ability, to find 
fault, and he would always vote with the minority, or not 
vote at all, never take office himself, and always being in 
the minority, did not vote for those who did. I have seen 
him throw the three managers into a cold sweat, as he leaned 
on his stick and spit tobacco juice on the floor, and wanted 
to know, "if there wawnt two dollars and a quarter in them 
thar receipts and expenditures as wawnt accounted for." 
After ten minutes examination, it would be found that the 
accounts were correct, and he was wrong (as he always was). 
He would not always vote for the motion to adjourn, as he 
seemed to think that there must be some business still 
unsettled. He would sometimes bring his wife and a few 
lady friends to support him, but then the other side would 
start off home and bring their wives and lady friends, atid 
nothing was gained by woman suffrage, as it was its own 
antidote. 

With schools free, and the winter months being a time of 
leisure, youths would attend school, and, although education 
was not compulsory, I never met with a case of illiteracy ; 
and indeed, nearly everyone had a smattering of knowledge. 
I say a " smattering " advisedly, as I could not think that 
the Americans are thorough in any thing. The only persons 
I met with who could not write or read were native-born 
Englishmen. 

Kansas is, geographically the central state of the Union, 



RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL LIFE. 39 

the nearest sea coast being on the gulf of Mexico. It is 
bordered by the states of Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, and 
the Indian Territory. Its population was in 1889 estimated 
at a million and a half. The State is as large as Great 
Britain, and is not much settled up in the Western, though 
the Eastern half has become the home of representatives of 
all nations. The Government or Homestead land is in the 
Western portion, as the East has either passed into the hands 
of residents or is owned by Eastern capitalists, but as each 
alternate section was given to the railroad company, or 
reserved for sale to settlers, there is no large body of land 
owned by any one individual, very few owning more than 
one section (640 acres). The first thing for an Englishman 
to do if he thinks to enter into the social life of prairie 
society, is to throw off all restraint and the idea of lofty 
superiority. A man who holds that he is better than his 
fellow-man is perfectly welcome to that opinion, but he will 
find it extremely difficult to impress that opinion on others. 
Equality means levelling down, not levelling up, at the same 
time no man need lose his self-respect, and in no place could 
a man use his talents, and influence for good and be more 
successful or more appreciated. If he can work with an eye 
singly to doing good rather than with a desire to become a 
" prominent citizen," who at some future time is to be the 
tool of a faction, so much the better for his peace of mind. 
But popularity is here a dangerous thing. The popular man 
is " spotted," and there is always someone ready to whisper 
in his ear that he is just the .man to run for office, and that 
there is nothing to prevent his being elected. He, in an 
unguarded moment yields, and is dragged into the whirl- 
pool of American politics, and those who were his former 



40 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

friends, are now his bitter enemies, and his career of 
usefulness is over, except so far as he can be of use to his 
party. Nearly every little school district has a Literary 
Society, and many a man who was destined to become 
a national politician, or a lawyer, or preacher of repute, 
has had his early training in the little prairie school-houses. 
The young people meet, elect a President, Secretary, and 
other officers, and at their fortnightly meetings — "admittance 
free to all parts of the house " — they have speaking and 
singing, winding up with a debate, sometimes on a question 
of local interest, sometimes of national interest, or it may 
be questions of no interest at all. It is astonishing to see a 
young boy get up and rattle off a speech, presenting his side 
of the question, or picking holes in the weak points of the 
armour of his opponent. Even these striplings do not 
" concise their diction or let their sense be clear," but wander 
wilfully off into wordiness. But this is a national failing, and 
it seems almost impossible for an American speaker to say 
what he has to say without indulging in metaphor, which at 
times borders on the ridiculous. I have heard and read 
sentences, quite as foolish as the Irishman's exclamation about 
the " apple of discord which was thrown among us, and will 
burst into a conflagration, that would deluge the whole world." 
Talmage truly said " We are a nation of talkers ; the American 
is born into the world with " Fellow Citizens " in his mouth, 
and leaves it with 'one word more then I'm done.'" Although 
it is necessary for an Englishman to go to Mark Twain, Bill 
Nye, Artemus Ward, Josh Billings, or Peck's Bad Boy, for 
good side-splitting reading, there is less real humour in the 
general conversation of the people, than would be heard in 
England, whilst American political speeches are anything 



RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL LIFE. 4I 

but lively reading, and if the reader would call to mind 
some of the political utterances of British statesman they 
certainly cannot be accused of dullness. 

In many localities there is sufficient talent to form a 
dramatic society, and plays are acted in a manner that 
would not be discreditable to a higher class community. 
The singing is especially good. Made up as the society is 
of English, Welsh, French, German, Scotch, Irish, and 
some other nations, really good musical voices are quite 
common. Nor was there any dearth of instrumental music. 
On one occasion we had a performance on the Scotch 
bag-pipes, and it carried me back in memory over the sea, 
that I have now an undying respect and admiration for 
those much spurned musical instruments. 

As is well known, manhood suffrage exists, so that each 
male over twenty-one years of age is entitled to vote at all 
elections, and there is also limited female suffrage, women 
voting in municipal and school elections. Each State has 
its own legislature, consisting of two houses, the " House," 
and the Senate. Representatives are returned — one from 
each organized county. The senators represent a group of 
two or more counties. These are elected by the direct 
vote of the people. Each State sends Congress men to 
Washington. The State of Kansas has seven, from that 
number of congressional districts. This is how the House 
of Congress, at Washington, is composed; whilst the Senate 
is composed of members elected by the legislatures of the 
various States. Each State has a Governor, and he, and 
other State Officers are elected by the people, but the 
Governors of Territories are appointed by the President of 
the United States. The county has its staff of officers, all 



42 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

elected for two years, these consist of County Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, Treasurer, Clerk, Probate Judge, 
Registrar of Deeds, Clerk of the District Court, Sheriff, 
County Attorney, and County Surveyor. Neither of these 
gets over four hundred pounds a year. The Sheriff and 
Treasurer are the best paid. All have to give bonds for 
good behaviour. These offices are hotly contested for, and 
the battle is fought on party lines. There is also the 
township*, which has its staff of officers, and, although they 
are not very lucrative positions they are eagerly sought 
after, mainly, because the professional politician puts himself 
in the way by these means of stepping to something higher. 
A man who is a township officer may be regarded as a fit 
candidate for some county office, or, in the event of a 
vacancy by death in the county office, he may be selected 
for recommendation to the governor, whose duty it is to 
appoint a successor. Here is certainly a school for training 
in the art of speaking, for there is an opportunity to move a 
resolution or an amendment, and if you have anything to 
say, you can — to borrow the homely phrase of the West — 
" Get up on your hind feet and spit her out." 

Englishmen are not brought up to anything but what is 
as solid as the sturdy oak, and he looks with anything but 
an approving eye on this artifical, uncertain life of politics, 
therefore, he seldom takes an active part ; in many cases, 
not even declaring his intention of becoming a citizen, and 
qualifymg for voting. At the same time there is no clannish- 
ness ; they of course like to meet, and always feel a kindly 
interest in each other, but as for forming any sort of 
society, they never thought of it, and where they did vote, 
they were equally divided between the Republican and 



RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL LIFE. 43 

Democratic parties. As I am giving personal experiences, 
it may not be amiss to say that I declared my intention 
of becoming a citizen, so as to be able to exercise 
the privilege of voting, then voted the way I thought 
best ; which was for the party most reviled in England, 
the party that had Lincoln, Grant, Garfield and now 
Benjamin Harrison for its leaders, the reason being, that 
locally, they were upholding the law to prohibit the 
sale of intoxicating liquors ; nationally, they had held and 
preserved the Union intact ; and lastly, because they 
believed in the doctrine of protecting the native industries 
of the country against foreign competition, thus creating a 
home market for agricultural produce rather than sending it 
across the ocean and receiving goods in return, and paying 
ocean passage both ways. I may have been wrong, but I 
could not help seeing things in that light. 

On a close examination of the matter, I found that the 
store-keepers were making enormous profits, and high prices 
were more the result of the lack of healthy competition 
among retail dealers than among manufacturers. For 
instance, a retail dealer said to me, " Oh, I will let you have 
those shoes at cost, nine shillings, they are marked thirteen." 
Fancy, four shillings profit on a thirteen shilling pair of 
shoes ! This is how fortunes are made in America, they 
are seldom dug out of the soil with the plough. With the 
single exception of really first-class woollen goods, there is 
not very much to complain of in the price of articles of 
clothing ; shoes should be much cheaper than in England. 
Sugar and rice, amongst groceries, are dearer than in this 
country. The people do not dress well, lor the two reasons, 
that society does not exact it, and money is not very 



44 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

plentiful. This goes without saying, or money lenders would 
not be able to obtain twelve or fifteen per cent., per annum. 
Laces, ribbons, flowers, and feathers, such as woman's soul 
loves, are ridiculously dear, and the profits on their sale are 
enormous. 

Food — I should think that no people under the sun 
could possibly live more luxuriously than the successful 
prairie farmer. Fruit enters very largely into his diet ; his 
chickens will fetch only sixpence or eightpence each ; 
eggs when most scarce are seldom more than one half- 
penny each ; butter only sixpence a pound ; beautiful 
apples at one shilling a bushel ; tomatoes, water-melons, 
and cantaloupes, not worth taking to town, and delicious 
to eat and are grown easily. 

The Americans are splendid cooks, and when a little 
English knowledge is added, and with a recipe or so from a 
German, a table laid out is a delight to the eye and a joy to 
the palate ; such a collection of pies and cakes as one could 
see at a "Fourth of July," a wedding or' a surprise party, 
or a Christmas gathering, would be an exhibition in itself, 
particularly at a " Fourth of July " meeting or a surprise 
party, where many cooks had exercised their skill and had 
not spoiled the broth. 

The English people in our community generally met to 
celebrate the anniversary of the American colonies — dis- 
carding allegiance to the British crown — at some friend's 
house, where each family brought its own basket. We 
always met for dinner, and the afternoon was spent in 
singing, reciting, or occasionally an " oration " would be 
delivered. At times there would be one or two Americans 
in our company, and we indulged, of course, in a little 



RELIGIOUS, POLITICAL, AND SOCIAL LIFE. 45 

harmless chaff, and, secretly I felt like Lord Chatham, when 
he said, " I am glad the colonies have rebelled," for if there 
had been no rebellion, there would have been no occasion 
to celebrate it, and many pleasant re-unions would not live 
in our memories as they do now. In another chapter I have 
attempted to describe a " Fourth of July " under other 
auspices. Another season that brought us together was 
Christmas. We celebrated Christmas in excellent style. 
It was generally bitterly cold, the snow frozen hard and 
crisp, and the sleigh would go well. Our hour of meeting 
was twelve o'clock — noon ; at such times we trusted to our 
hostess' liberality and were never disappointed. The roast 
turkey or the goose was always there, and entertained us 
royally, and also the plum pudding ; but, as we were all 
total abstainers — by law, or principle — brandy-sauce was 
dispensed with. Excellent cooks as the Americans are, the 
ingredients that go to make up an English plum pudding 
and the mixing of them, were not within their ken. "I 
know how it is made ! " said an American housewife, 
you just make a plum cake, then boil, instead of bake it." 
Mince pie too, as the Americans make it, was not like the 
mince pie of our early homes, unless an Enghshwoman had 
had a hand in it. The cooking of a joint too, was also 
a difficult task. I remember once, a special treat being 
provided for me, " I heard you say you liked leg of mutton, 
now I'm just going to cook you one." The leg of mutton 
was served up, and I was wondering how the tasteless mess 
had been prepared, when my well-meaning hostess gratified 
my curiosity by saying, " I hope you like it ? I boiled it in 
strong salt and water, and then fried it in butter." A keen 
regard for her feehngs, and a desire to be as agreeable as 



46 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

possible, made me act like Tommy Traddles, when he 
dined with his friend, David Copperfield, and say, "deli- 
cious, I assure you madam, delicious!" 

Undoubtedly the West is the best place in the world for 
people to go to work for wages, for the hired man is always 
master of the situation. He is the most autocratic being in 
the universe ; like necessity, he knows no law. Directly the 
farmer or his wife gets under the dominance of the hired 
hand all independence is gone. The best seat in the parlour 
is sure to be appropriated, the best horse in the stable is no 
longer at the farmer's exclusive service. The hired man 
will leave at the most awkward moment, even an offer of 
increase of wages will have no effect on this individual. He 
will go and hire to your neighbour, and even disappoint him 
by failing to turn up. He will call you by your christian 
name, and even your wife's name, or, perhaps your own pet 
designation is rolled round his tongue as a sweet morsel. 
You give him eighteen or twenty dollars a month, and the 
best food you have in the house, and "still he is not happy." 
Of the hired girl I should like to speak with the respect due 
to her sex, but my conscience would not permit me to do 
so. You only have her when another olive branch is added 
to the parental tree. You take your team and go and fetch 
her, she is anxious to hire, she packs her box and you bring 
her home with you, your wife's eye beams with delight as 
she sees a prospect of relief from the monotonous round of 
weary toil, you yourself rejoice that you have no longer to 
get breakfast, to wash up, to make the beds, and peel 
potatoes. She proves to be a treasure indeed, there is a 
look of the youthful beauty in your wife's face ; she and 
yourself both agree that prairie life is bearable, if you can 



RELIGIOUS, POLITICAL, AND SOCIAL LIFE. 47 

only get some one to help to do the work. If you are 
English, you decide that you will not return to England, if 
you are an American, you abandon the idea of leaving the 
farm and going to live in town. The hired girl cooks your 
food nicely. Her excellent qualities have*been discovered 
by the young man up the creek, he pays her two visits 
during the week, and asks you to lend him the team and 
buggy to drive her out on Sunday. You cannot refuse, he 
drives her home and brings the team back. Next day she 
sends her little brother to ask you to take her box, and to 
please take her money with you. You take her box, you 
plead with her, you tell her how glad you would be if she 
would come back, but no ! all the wooing of a Lochinvar 
would not move her, so you leave her box, as she will not 
return. Her mother's tomatoes are ripe and she must 
needs stop and can them ! You go off in search of another, 
and select the most likely looking out of half a dozen. 
She does not prove a treasure ; she is rough and strong ; 
she cannot cook ; she is wasteful ; she calls your children 
" mean little skunks;" and is in every way a very objection- 
able young person. You half wish she would leave, and 
are afraid to tell her so. At last she has earned sufficient 
money to buy a new dress — this is what she hired out for 
— and she goes home. Your wife has probably become 
stronger, and you both decide that "you would do 
without a girl." The reader has no doubt been ready 
to interpose the suggestion, " Get some English girls 
over." Worse and worse ! if you pay their fare over 
they won't stop and work it out, if they come out 
independently, then they breath the pure air of Freedom 
and become insolent and independent, and either 



48 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

marry or take some other step towards " bettering 
themselves." 

The people of Kansas having voted the saloon out of the 
State, it will be unnecessary to dwell on the sobriety of the 
residents. Some people were extremely anxious to prove 
that the prohibitory law was a failure, and would assert that 
they could get all the drink they w^anted. This, as old 
Abraham Lincoln used to say, reminds me of a little story. 
A traveller from the eastern states was enquiring if the law 
was a success or not ? " Bless you no ! why on here in the 
next town, I can get you all the drink you want." The 
traveller was extremely anxious to *see how the law was 
evaded, so went with his companion. The companion made 
enquiries for wooden-legged Joe. Joe was at last discovered, 
and the whiskey hunter said: "say, Joe! can't you get 
us something to drink?" Joe's reply was, that if they would 
meet him in the cemetery in half an hour he w^ould supply 
their wants. The tender-foot thought that perhaps Joe 
referred to the spirits of the dead, but his companion said 
that " Joe was alright." The trio met in the cemetery, and 
Joe unstrapped his wooden leg, and down in the hollow 
part was concealed the bottle of whiskey. The stranger 
said, that " prohibition certainly prohibited, if it w^as 
necessary to go after dark to meet a wooden legged man in 
an old churchyard to get a drink." 

But two vices cannot pass unnoticed ; the first is the 
almost universal habit of tobacco-chewing, and the next, that 
of swearing ; such rank blasphemy it would be hard to meet 
with anywhere. The name of the Supreme Being is invoked 
in a most disgraceful manner. Mere boys on the street or 
the farms are confirmed swearers, and the example of their 



RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL LIFE. 49 

elders does not go towards making any improvement. 
Happily the legislature has passed a law making it an 
indictable offence to sell tobacco to boys under sixteen years 
of age. If there was a law to prevent the wholesale vending 
of profane language, one of the worst blots on western life 
would be wiped out. 

The general health of the people is good, but the most 
prevalent diseases are nasal catarrh and dyspepsia, and 
most new arrivals have an attack of ague. Possibly the 
greatest disadvantage of having this malady is that the 
sufferer obtains very little sympathy from the natives, for 
they say of that, as is said of toothache, " Nobody ever dies 
of it." But it is nevertheless a most disagreeable complaint, 
and, when attended with fever, I am not so certain about 
there being no danger of its terminating life. It generally 
makes its appearance during the early autumn, the hot days 
and cool nights being an important factor in producing it. 
The sufferer may feel in perfect health in the morning, but 
as the day becomes warmer, say about ten o'clock, a 
coldness is felt, beginning at the feet, then going slowly up 
the body, and at last throwing the victim into a cold shiver, 
lasting about ten minutes, the body shaking and the teeth 
chattering, at the same time persons standing near the bed 
may feel the atmosphere oppressive with heat. After 
the shaking is over fever follows, producing — if in a 
violent form — deliriousness. The feeling cannot be better 
described than the suggestion of the Doctor, when he asked 
me, " If I felt as if my head was going to pieces." I had 
seven chills in six days, this is certainly one over the usual 
allowance, as they are only supposed to come one in a day, 
or, in most cases one every alternate day. The chills are 



50 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

followed by night sweats, the night-shirt being saturated 
in such a manner as to be a fit client for the wringer. After 
the patient has recovered, his appetite is voracious, and not 
infrequently an excessive indulgence of it will produce a 
second illness. At a later period dumb ague will be 
experienced, this is ague in a less acute form ; the symptoms 
of ague appear, with the same weak languid feeling. This is 
also followed by a voracious appetite. Dumb ague will often 
come as the result of overheating the body. 

A burial on the prairie is a very touching sight, as there 
is something about death here that draws men's hearts close 
together. When a death takes place the news is always 
sent round, which may be regarded as an invitation to the 
funeral. It may be only a little child of a few months old, 
still the neighbours leave their work, and dress themselves 
as tidy as possible and meet at the house. A service is 
held, a minister having been brought from a neighbouring 
town. The coffin is set on chairs, and after the singing of 
hymns, an address is delivered — an address always directed 
to the living. At the hour appointed for starting, the coffin 
is put into a buggy, the procession of wagons, buggies, 
horsemen, and foot passengers is formed, and they proceed 
to the cemetery — in some places a spot fenced off the corner 
of a farm. The minister here says a few words, and here is 
an opportunity for a few words to have a good effect, for 
men who are often indifferent to religion attend these 
ceremonies, the heart is mellowed by the solemnity of the 
occasion, and a word at this time may bring to his memory 
words he had heard in childhood's days, but long since 
forgotten. 



CHAPTER V. 



A FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION. 

A S every person who may read these pages may not be 
acquainted with the history of this national hoUday, 
I may be excused for giving a brief sketch of it. 

The treaty of Paris (1763) closed the French and Indian 
war, and established the supremacy of the English on the 
American continent. At this time there was a strong 
attachment between the mother country and the American 
Colonies ; but this strong bond of filial affection was 
doomed to be rent asunder. " There came a change, as 
all things human change." For, to quote an English 
historian, " with a view to relieve the people of Great 
Britain from part of the burden of the taxes, it had been 
resolved by the Ministry to tax the North-American 
Colonies, and in 1761 an Act was passed to impose stamp 
duties upon them." " The news of the passage of the 
Stamp Act," writes Swinton, the American historian, 
" reached America, and caused great indignation and 
alarm." The legislature of Virginia was in session when 
the news came. The leaders in that assembly hesitated, 
but Patrick Henry came forward and proposed resolutions 
condemning the action of Great Britain, and the resolutions 
were adopted by the legislature. This action, so vigorous, 
and almost treasonable, had a great effect upon the people. 



52 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

Colony after colony became infected with the opposition to 
" taxation without representation." Children ran through 
the streets crying, " Liberty, property, and no stamps ! " 
Under the title of " Sons of Liberty," societies were formed 
to resist these measures, and frighten the stamp officers. 
The officers were compelled to resign, and the stanips were 
seized and burned. The people were terribly in earnest. 
In the midst of this excitement, the first colonial congress 
met in the city of New York, and after three weeks' 
deliberation, drew up a declaration of rights and a state- 
ment of grievances, and sent a petition to King George 
and his Parliament. The Stamp Act was repealed, Edmund 
Burke and William Pitt being in favour of the repeal. 
Burke's speech on the occasion was very forcible. Let me 
mention that the Stamp Act provided that all deeds, notes, 
bills, and other legal documents should be written on 
stamped paper. This the British revenue officers were to 
furnish at certain fixed rates. The joy of the colonists at 
the repeal of the Act was great, and the old friendly feeling 
towards the mother country was restored, and trade revived. 
If, (that little word on which hangs so much must be 
inserted here) the British Ministry had been content to let 
matters rest here, in all probability the American colonies 
would have contributed their quota of loyalty and produce 
to the Colonial Exhibition ; but — to quote two lines from 
Tennyson's fine ode, sung on the occasion of the opening 
of the Exhibition — 

" Men that in a narrower day — 
Unprophetic rulers they." 

required the colonies to furnish quarters for British troops. 
This they refused to do. The State House of Boston was 



A FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION. 53 

taken possession of, and the red coat so dear to the 
eyes of nurse girls was to the American colonist like the 
proverbial red rag to the bull. The right to impose taxes 
was not entirely foregone, for a tax was put on tea. This 
gave rise to a system of " boycotting," the tea being sent 
back ; and this culminated in what has been termed " The 
Boston Tea Party." About fifty colonists, disguised as 
Indians, went down into Boston harbour, broke open the 
chests, and poured the tea out into the water. War with 
Britain became inevitable. The British Parliament declared 
that Massachusetts was in a state of rebellion, and Patrick 
Henry shouted in thundering tones — " I repeat it, sir, we 
must fight ! " George Washington, who had rendered good 
service to England in the war against the French, wrote 
prophetically — " More blood will be spilled, if the ministry 
are determined to push matters to extremity, than history has 
yet furnished instances of in the annals of North America." 
Well, we know they did fight. The first battle was fought 
at Lexington, April 19th, 1775 ; the last was the siege of 
Yorktown, which surrendered October 19th, 1781 ; so it 
will be seen that the struggle lasted six years and a half. 

But to come to the subject mentioned in the beginning 
of this letter. On the 4th July, 1776, that vigorously 
written document, the Declaration of Independence, drawn 
up by Thomas Jefferson, was adopted by Congress, for, 
notwithstanding that the colonies had rebelled, and were 
up in arms against the mother country, the colonists still 
claimed to be loyal subjects of the British Crown. But 
the Declaration of Independence told in plain language 
that " these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, 
free and independent States, that they are absolved from 



54 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political 
connection between them, and the State of Great Britain is, 
and ought to be, totally dissolved." One hundred and ten 
years have elapsed since the adoption of this declaration. 
The success of the colonists, aided by the French troops, 
created the American nation. The Republic has withstood 
some severe shocks, sometimes by war wath foreign nations, 
but worst of all, by that civil war caused by the secession of 
the eleven Southern States, and which lasted four years. 
Some prophets predict an overthrow of the Republic, and 
that a monarchy will be substituted ; just as there are 
prophets predicting that on this side of the water a republic 
will take the place of the monarchy. 

I ride along a dusty Kansas road to hear how Britain 
oppressed the colonists, and how this " greatest, freeest, and 
wonderfullest nation on earth, fellow-citizens," became the 
great America it is. Wagon-loads and buggy-loads of 
pic-nicers are wending their way in a cloud of dust, under 
an almost tropical sun. Along the line of route flags and 
banners are hung out — the little flag from the window of 
the squatters' shanty, and the more pretentious one waving 
from the lightning-conductor on the substantial residence 
of the old settler. The young man who takes his best girl 
in a buggy to the "Fourth" bedecks his horse with the stars 
and stripes ; the young lady herself adding a miniature flag 
to her toilet. Arriving on the ground — a natural grove of 
black walnut — I find a very large crowd assembled. The 
band is playing an overture ; it ceases ; a young gentleman 
reads the document I have just mentioned — the Declaration 
of Independence ; no one appears to listen very attentively, 
as every schoolboy is familiar with its sentiments. The 



A FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION. 55 

sun has reached the meridian — and a very hot meridian it 
seems to be — so it is the dinner hour. Spreading clean 
cloths on the green grass, the viands are laid out, and 
tempting they look, though an indiscriminate consumption 
would doubtless tend to dyspepsia, if not to nightmare. 
Paterfamilias has great difficulty in collecting his straggling 
offspring, but they finally form a circle around the " table " 
cloth, and materfamilias has the satisfaction of seeing a due 
appreciation of her efforts in the culinary art. Of course 
the centre dish and the side dish is the delicious American 
pie. This article of diet is as ubiquitous as it is delicious. 
I left it in a partially consumed state on the dining table of 
a New York hotel, to encounter it whole and circular on 
the refreshment stall at Buffalo. It was being eaten by 
hungry passengers at Toledo, whilst I met it in an advanced 
state of mouldiness. at St. Louis. And it turns up here 
again under the shade of these walnut trees in a state 
lusciously tempting. The American eats pie when he takes 
a lunch, and if he enters a restaurant the capstone of his 
"square meal " is a triangular piece of pie. 

I have no time left to apply any especial geometrical 
definition to this meal, for I hear the bugle call, and know 
that after a little more music we shall have the " oration." 
No gathering of Americans will consider their day's enjoy- 
ment complete, unless there is an " oration," whether it be 
at an agricultural show or at a Sunday-school pic-nic. The 
speaker is introduced to a listless and perspiring crowd, as 
the Honourable Mr. — he may be entitled to the Mr., but 
certainly not to the Honourable. It seems strange in a 
country where " all men are born free and equal " that 
there should be such indiscriminate giving of titles. The 



56 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

man who spent a few months in the tents of the Northern 
army is dubbed "captain" or "colonel;" whilst the 
politician who rises to " move that Mr. Smith take the 
chair," lays himself open to receive the title of " Honour- 
able." The speech is of the spread eagle order, conveying 
the impression to the hearer that there is but one country, 
one government, and one people, and that will be found lying 
between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. " Every man," 
says the speaker, " in Europe is either born a serf or a 
gentleman," " We hear," he continues, " a great deal about 
the royal family. AVhy, in this great country every family 
is a royal family, and every man is a gentleman if he chooses 
to be so." There were one or two attempts to be humorous. 
In speaking of what could be found in America which could 
not be found in the old world, he declared that America 
had more homely men and handsome women than any 
country in the world. Here he removed one false im- 
pression from my mind, in reference to the good looks of 
the women, for I had been wondering how so many plain- 
looking females could be got together in a comparatively 
sparsely settled country. Of the mode of practical enjoy- 
ment there could be but little said ; it would not compare 
very favourably with an English country fair. Here is a 
round-about in which young America takes his sweetheart 
" twelve times round the world for a nickel," to the tune 
of "Yankee Doodle," played by a left-handed violinist. A 
man walks round outside the ring selling tickets for the next 
"voyage," and notwithstanding that the circumnavigation 
is somewhat rapid, the view limited and the price exorbitant 
(2^d.) the seats are instantly filled. Passing on from this 
past a lemonade and candy stand, is found the dancing 



A FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION. 57 

platform. Here is another individual anxious to sell 
" tickets for the next dance ; " and a man with a buggy 
whip between his fingers, and his hands resting on the 
shoulders of the two fiddlers (rasping away on an elevated 
platform), is calling out the figures. This is sung in 
anything but musical notes : — " Up by the right ; down 
by the left ; ladies balance over ; swing'em round and 
round." They swing 'em round and round, but I must 
mention here that in the West dancing is not considered 
a very respectable pastime, though in this vast assembly I 
only saw one man intoxicated, and he was on the dancing 
stand. The day advances, and the eventide approaches ; 
teams are hitched up, and the last of the crowd leaves 
the grove without this " Fourth " adding much to, or 
subtracting much from, its patriotism. It has had its day's 
enjoyment. This is truly a great day in the history of the 
United States and of England. 

This country has become the home of the surplus 
population of the world. Its population has increased 
from about three millions in 1776 to more than sixty 
millions at the present time, and still there is room for 
millions more. 




L 



CHAPTER VI. 

LAND AND WATER, LAW AND ORDER. 

AND is sold at prices ranging from two to six pounds 
an acre in the settled districts of Kansas, but there 
is much Government or homestead land in the Western 
part of the State, 

Under the Homestead Law, the settler is entitled to a 
free grant of one hundred and sixty acres of land, not 
taxable for the first five years ; he need not live on it the 
whole year, but is expected to make certain improvements 
each year. There is also land obtainable, by planting so 
many acres in trees — this is called a timber claim. The 
expenses attached to the transference of this land from the 
Government to the settler, amounts to about ^3. There is 
a properly appointed Land office, as distinct from the office 
of the real estate agent. In a Kansas town, I saw one of 
the latter, whose sign was a plaster of Paris figure of Atlas, 
bearing the world on his shoulders, and on the globe was 
printed, " Land, Sir ? " Unfortunately, many persons are 
attracted by the thought of the free grants of land, they 
break up their homes in the Eastern States, load up their 
belongings into a covered waggon and set out by road for 
the homesteads. Usually they are of the poorest class of 
farmers, but the thought of a home prompts them to take 



LAND AND WATER, LAW AND ORDER. 59 

the Step. Their first year is spent in shaping themselves, 

and trying to grow a little Indian corn ; sufficient rain may 

come, and they may grow sufficient to feed the team. The 

neighbours being as poor as themselves, there is no chance 

of earning money, and railroads or towns are far distant. 

The next year may be a disastrous one ; their entire crops 

failing — it is safe to assert, that at least, every alternate crop 

suffers in these regions. The settlers may hold on through 

sheer desperation, buoyed up only by hope, or they may 

pack up in despair and disgust, and travel back over the weary 

track of eight hundred or one thousand miles, broken in 

spirit, and poor in pocket. To say the least, it is a life to 

which — knowing it as I do, I should most emphatically 

discourage. Nevertheless, as it is impossible to prevent 

marriage by proving beyond cavil, that marriage is a failure, 

so it is useless to expect to stop the tide of emigration to 

the West, by pointing out that the claim is deserted, or that 

the broken hearted wife lies buried there. A cycle of moist 

seasons will come, and the people will perhaps be able 

financially, to withstand the loss of a crop, and the country 

will become peopled, but I should like to utter a word of 

warning to the English farmer, or agricultural labourer, 

against what at first sight appears to be a very plausible 

project. Many I have seen go out, full of hope, whose lot 

has been one of hardship, and have then returned with 

nothing but experience. There was always a grim humour 

about this returning : one poor fellow painted on his 

waggon 

'* In Kansas we trusted, 

And in Kansas we busted." 
Another, dropped into poetry : 



6o SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

" Farewell Kansas and Nebraska, 
I bid you both adieu, 
I may emigrate to another State, 
But never back to you." 

Land is transferred easily and cheaply, the transfer of the 
deed being recorded in the County Registrar's office, the 
real estate agent having little to do beside hunting up a 
purchaser. The prairie farmer, in very few instances, looks 
upon his farm in the light of, or with the veneration of, a 
home. He is most always ready to sell, if he can get more 
than it cost him, as he has most likely an idea that town life, 
with some other business, would be more agreeable than 
farming ; or he may think of moving to some other State, 
and is only too glad to get out. I do not favour the idea 
of colonization by families. It is an old adage that 
"relations are better apart," and certainly they are no more 
harmonious or freer from petty squabbles and jealousies 
than communities, the inhabitants of which know nothing 
of each other's antecedents. And besides, it is not long 
before some want to move to another part, thus, making 
occasional gaps in the society, which, where harmony 
exists, is very painful. 

Where sunshine is plentiful, water is apt to be scarce, and 
here we found no exception to the rule. The sun would, 
for days and weeks together, be without so much as a fleecy 
cloud between it and the earth ; the result was that the heat 
during June, July, and August, was intense, the mercury 
often registering one hundred degrees in the shade, and 
this, if accompanied by a hot southern wind, was very 
disastrous to crops ; but on the other hand, if by 
occasional downpours of rain, the growth was enormous. — 



LAND AND WATER, LAW AND ORDER. 6 1 

Indian corn would, with such weather, start from the ground 
and reach a height of ten feet in two months. Wells are 
either dug or drilled, and water found at a depth of from 
twelve to fifty feet. The western people believe in the 
efficacy of the divining rod, so before digging or drilling, the 
"water witch" is called in to tell where the water will be found. 
The " witch " takes the stick of a peach tree and walks 
along, when he reaches the spot where the water is, the end 
of the stick is supposed to turn in his hand, and point 
dow^nwards, no power on earth being able to prevent it. 
The stick will not turn in any ordinary person's hand, 
though water witches were by no means scarce. The 
person who may read this, and not being of a superstitious 
nature, will at once come to the conclusion that it is a 
money-making scheme, something on a par with fortune- 
telling ; but it is not so, as the water-witch would no more 
think of digging without " witching," than he would of 
sawing a board until he had measured the place he intended 
it to fit in. Dr. Cobham Brewer in his Dictionary of Phrase 
and Fabie, says: "the divining rod will indicate water-springs, 
precious metal, and anything else that simpletons will pay 
for." But does Oliver Wendell Holmes believe in the 
divining rod, when he writes in a recent poem : 

"He is the critic, whose divining rod, 
Tells where the waters hide beneath the sod." 

or is this merely a figure of speech ? A Western lady was 
asked the question, "do you believe in water witching ?" her 
reply was, " I don't know, we found the water " ! ! One case 
came under my notice. An Enghsh friend had spent many 
dollars in well digging, without any success, when a well digger 



62 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

who believed in the efficacy of the divining rod, offered to 
get water for a small sum of money. He dug about twenty 
feet, found water, and it supplies the family to this day. 
Still there are cases where the stick has turned, and still no 
water found, so this must remain like many other mysteries, 
a subject for conjecture. When there is a long continued 
drought, it is a very serious matter for the prairie farmer, 
for not only does his crop become injured, or totally 
destroyed, but stock water is very scarce. One farmer who 
lived near me, drove his cattle every day for a period of 
fourteen months, and the nearest pond was three miles 
distant, and he had also to haul water for family use, and for 
hogs. At such a time, the grass would dry up completely, 
and on one occasion the grass had become so dry, that on 
the 24th of July, a spark from the locomotive set the prairie 
on fire, and destroyed many stacks of hay before it was 
controlled. I have also seen the prairie set on fire by a 
flash of lightning. Thunderstorms came in the manner 
described in a previous chapter, and even these were wel- 
come after drought. Cyclones were of frequent occurence, 
and often attended by much loss of life, but anyone visiting 
a track of one of these destructive storms, immediately 
after it had passed over, would wonder how anything, or 
person, could be alive to tell the tale. A house near us was 
completely demolished, though of the seven inmates, only 
one person was injured, and she only to the extent of 
a broken collar bone. The same stillness is noticeable 
preceding their appearance, as before thunder or hailstorms, 
and they also come invariably about the hour of sunset. A 
grey cloud in the shape of an elephant's trunk, shoots down 
to the earth, and then bursts and divides, the one part 



LAND AND WATER, AND LAW AND ORDER. 63 

wriggling back up like a serpent into the sky, the other 
commencing its destructive course along the earth. Some- 
times it may be small and insignificant, so small that it will 
pass through between two buildings a few yards apart, and 
injure neither. At other times its course will be so wide, 
and power of destruction so great, as to demolish a whole 
town. 

There is not a great variety of wild animals, " de 'possum 
and de coon " are very rarely seen, and then only near the 
creeks. The gopher or ground squirrel is a nuisance, as 
he burrows into the ground, and steals the newly planted 
corn. The mink or American sable — as he is termed by 
the furriers — is a destructive customer in the hen roost. 
The skunk and polecat are very numerous, and no amount 
of trapping or shooting seemed to diminish the number of 
these very handsome, but very objectionable and malodorous 
quadrupeds. Snakes were plentiful, nearly all of a harmless 
kind, excepting the rattlesnake, and he always sprung his 
rattle, and seemed anxious to get into the grass out of the 
way. But I never saw an animal look so much out of 
place — except in the Zoo — as the poor coyote, or prairie 
wolf, he seemed to have come back to look at his former 
camping ground, and finding it occupied by farm houses, 
got bewildered, and lost his way, and if the " boys " would 
start on horseback, he could be easily caught. This came 
nearer fox hunting than anything else I saw, but it was a 
poor imitation of the genuine article. 

I have briefly mentioned the grants of land to the railroads, 
this was a policy which has caused serious trouble, and led 
to much litigation. Every alternate section was granted to 
the railroad company, provided they constructed a railroad 



64 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

in a certain time, through a given country. At the time 
these grants were made, the land was so remote from any 
settlement, that nobody ever expected to see it become 
valuable, therefore there was a reckless and indiscriminate 
giving, and in some cases the company claimed land to 
which they were not entitled. The re"sult was, that in some 
districts, the right of the company to hold or sell the land, 
was questioned, and settlers would go and squat on the lands. 
There happened to be some land in dispute in one part of 
the county in which I resided — and to borrow the phrase 
of the locality — it caused lively times, and there was a little 
revolver practice. One peculiar feature of the case was that 
squatters — or rather leaguers, as they had formed a league 
to fight the matter out — would not build on the land until 
it had been sold by the railroad company. I have a 
suspicion that this was done because the railroad company 
was rich, and it would be difficult to contend with them in 
the law courts, whilst individual owners being unorganised 
would be easier to handle. In some cases the owner of the 
land would be many hundreds of miles away, so that there 
was no one to prevent them building. In other cases, if the 
owner lived in the neighbourhood, the shanty would be 
nailed together in the night, and then dragged by horses on 
the piece of land. Here was a curious point of law ; a man 
coming on in this way, was recognised by law, as having 
"peaceable possession ! " and it was necessary to enter into 
a costly suit in the courts, before he could be removed, and 
such suits were veritable Jarndyce and Jarndyce cases, quite 
as unending and interminable, and would run on for year 
after year. The league would subscribe and pay the 
lawyer, but the unlucky owner of the land would be deprived 



LAND AND WATER, LAW AND ORDER. 65 

of the use of his land, had to pay taxes on it, besides the 
expenses of the costly litigation. 

The leaguers would sometimes have a fight among 
themselves. Two parties claimed eighty acres of land, both 
met and intended to build at the same time, a quarrel 
ensued, then a fight with revolvers, guns, sticks, or what 
came first to hand. Two young men were killed. A father 
and three sons — the murderers— escaped, but an enraged 
populace rode after them, and would have hanged them to 
the nearest tree, but as they got safely into town, they were 
handed over to the sheriff, and were lodged in gaol. 
They had a trial, and were found guilty, receiving terms in 
the Penitentiary, ranging from one to five years. Another 
fight took place between leaguers and anti-leaguers. A man 
had been evicted by the order of the court, and two lads, sons 
of the owner of the land, were put in possession. They left 
home one night to attend a wedding party, and on returning, 
found the house occupied. The evicted leaguer, and two 
of the same stripe had taken possession. As soon as the 
lads knocked at the door, a shot was fired, but although 
without firearms, the youngest one seized an axe lying by 
the door, smashed the door in, and entered. Shooting 
became the order of the day. The one lad was stooping to 
pick something up off the bed, when he was fired at, the 
shots grazing the back of his neck. Enraged with pain and 
temper, he seized the gun from his assailant, and hit him 
senseless on the floor. The other two, seeing there was one 
man dead, rushed out of the house, leaving the two boys 
with " peaceable possession " and one prisoner, this one 
recovered consciousness, and they took him in hand, and 
handed him over to the sheriff. He was fined ;^^, and 



66 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

bound over to keep the peace for six months. This fight did 
more to settle the land question, than all the law courts in 
the State. There are so many courts for a case to pass 
through — on appeal — that a case may begin before a justice 
of the peace, carried on to the circuit or district court, then to 
the Supreme court of the State, and finally to the court of 
"last resort," the Supreme court of the United States, at 
Washington. One thing particularly striking is, that not 
only is it possible to go with a case from one tribunal to 
another, but wealthy litigants seem to delight in it. Thus 
there are cases connected with this land question that are 
still unsettled, after being five or six years before the courts. 
In some cases they are sent back to the district court after 
being examined, and found not to be within the jurisdiction 
of the tribunal, before which the case was sent. Litigants 
blame the law; the public, if they have to pay the bill, blame 
the lawyers. I was once told that the way to get admission 
to the bar was to borrow a Coke and Blackstone, look them 
over, pay for an oyster supper for your brothers — in law — and 
apply for a position on the roll of attorneys, hang out your 
shingle, and like a spider, wait for the passing flies. This 
may be somewhat exaggerated, still I have seen young men 
with anything but a wise or lawyerlike appearance, who 
were said to be reading law, and then with the suddenness 
of a flash of lightning, the county paper would announce 
that " Our old friend and school mate, Robert K. Perkins 
has become a full fledged lawyer, and has entered into partner- 
ship with Sharp & Sweet. Bob has the making of a first 
class lawyer in him, and will surely come to the front. We 
could not accept his kind invitation to the oyster supper, as 
we were out of town on business. Thanks Bob ! we wish 



LAND AND WATER, LAW AND ORDER. 67 

you a successful career, old boy." The land question has 
now been settled, the leaguers either moving off, or renting 
the land from the owners. The jury system of the West 
is a unique institution. Justices of the peace may try a 
case, and have a jury. These juries consist of six persons, 
and are called up as promiscuously as a country jury in this 
country would be to inquire into the cause of a sudden 
death. I happened to be in town one day, and there 
was a case to be tried before a J. P. and a jury. It was easy 
to find a justice of peace, easier to find a string of lawyers, 
but extremely difficult to find a jury. I strolled up into the 
court — over a grocery store, this being the J.P.'s office. A 
long narrow room with a table near the end, at which sat 
the justice — whose occupation in private life I will not 
disclose — who, with a quid of tobacco in his mouth was 
making very free use of the spittoon under the table. 
Down one side were the counsel for the plaintiff with their 
heels on the table, reading republican newspapers, down 
the other side were the counsel for the defendant with their 
heels on the table, and reading democratic newspapers. 
There was a deadlock in the proceedings, as the list of jury- 
men had been excused by counsel, or had excused themselves, 
and the constable was running about town to find another 
batch. After a time, a heavy tread was heard on the stairs, 
and six men, followed by the constable, filed into the court. 
The constable stood in the doorway, and triumphantly 
placing his fists in his ribs said, " there ye air jedge, there's 
half-a-dozen more on 'em." Five of the new comers went 
into the jury box — a deal form placed by the side of the 
smoke blackened wall. There had been one of the first 
batch who had been found sufficiently ignorant of this case 



68 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

or anything else to finally pass the examination in chief, and 
the cross-examination of the justice and counsel. 

The Justice : — " Well, Thomas ! can you serve on the jury 
to-day ? " 

Juror : — " Not very well your honour ! boss is gone out of 
town, and left me in charge of the office, and I expect some 
important business to be transacted to-day, must serve if 
your honour says so, but had much rather not." 

Justice : — " Well, I don't know ! what do you say 
Mr. Dart ? " 

Counsel for the plaintiff says : — " That perhaps keeping 
the Juror in the box would prevent a real estate deal, so 
that possibly it would be best to excuse him." 

Justice : — "Oh ! well, Thomas, we must excuse 
you." 

Juror : — " Thanks, your honour ; " takes his hat, and 
looks for a seat in the court, to watch the proceedings. 

One replied to the interrogations, that he wanted to go 
fishing, and was excused. A druggist declared that there 
was no one in his store, and much custom would be lost, 
and he was excused. The constable took me by the arm, 
and said, " now then, go on into the jury box." I protested 
that not being a fully naturalized citizen, I was not qualified. 
"Can't help that, go into the box and let the judge excuse 
you ;" I went into the box, the judge spit on the floor, and 
asked me if I could serve on the jury. 

" I am not elegible, your honour." 

Justice : — " Say you aint able ? " 

Counsel : — He says he is not eligible. 

Justice : — Weil, why aint you ? 

" I am not a fully naturalized citizen your honour.' 



LAND AND WATER, LAW AND ORDER. 69 

Justice looks bewildered : Counsel says the gentleman 
must be excused. 

At last a jury is found ; they stand up to be sworn. This 
is done by holding up the right hand, whilst the justice in this 
case, spoke the words of the oath. They do not, as John 
Chinaman puts it, "smell him book." 

We had an occasional murder among the ordinary 
peaceable citizens, as well as the fights that arose out of the 
land troubles. In one instance, a villain ruined a young 
girl ; had a quarrel with her father ; shot him dead ; was 
arrested, tried, and let go free. Verdict : " not guilty, self- 
defence." Another case of murder — shooting, the natives 
called it — occurred in a town, near where I lived. There was 
some private feud between two tradesmen, one, a druggist in 
good practice, the other, an implement agent. The druggist 
found himself temporarily editing the little newspaper of 
the town ; here was an opportunity to vent his spleen ; 
he inserted a paragraph, reflecting on the character of the 
implement agent. The latter went into his store, and asked 
who wrote the paragraph, the druggist admitted being the 
author ; the slandered man uttered some threatening words, 
and left the store. The druggist had occasion to go down the 
street, as he stepped out, he saw his opponent. He went 
back and took a revolver, and placed it in his pocket. The 
two men met. The agent had no firearms, but had a stone 
in his hand, some words passed, then the druggist seized 
the agent, held him against the hitching rack near the 
pavement, and shot him. The poor fellow was carried in, 
and died in an hour. The murderer was arrested, and 
lodged in gaol. For three days this case was continued 
before the justice of the peace— as although the murder was 



70 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

committed in open day -light, and there were many eye 
witnesses, they appeared to get as witnesses, people who 
could not possibly aid justice, or retard it by their evidence. 
The case was sent to the the district court, and here was one 
of the most difficult tasks of obtaining jurors, it is possible 
to imagine. A special venire of fifty were summoned, and 
excused or objected to, then another lot of thirty-five were 
called, and after a day and a half of the court's time had 
been taken up, a jury was empanelled. The idea of the 
Western justice is to give the prisoner all the chance of 
escape possible — he is even allowed to give his own version 
of the story — so that every juror who has the slightest personal 
knowledge of the case, or had gleaned any information of 
the case from the newspapers, would be objected to by 
the prisoner's counsel. When this case was proceeding, an 
officer of the law paid me a nocturnal visit, requesting my 
presence in court, at nine o'clock next morning to serve as a 
juror. I was placed in the box — previously taking the oath 
in the manner described, swearing to answer all questions 
truthfully. The judge's questions were answered satisfac- 
torily. These are — as I remember them — as follows : — 

" Mr. you have been in court, and have heard me 

state this case." 

Juror replies in the affirmative, or if he has not been in 
court, the judge states the outlines of the case. 

" If found guilty, the penalty is death ! have you any 
conscientious scruples against the death penalty ? " 

The answer was " No," in every case I noticed. 

" Are you related to the defendant or the deceased ? " 

These questions were passed, then the counsel for the 
State asked me : 



LAND AND WATER, LAW AND ORDER. 7 1 

''You are from the Eastern part of this county I 
believe ? " 

" I am ! " 

" You have heard something of this case then ? " 

" I have ! " 

"Are you acquainted with the defendant?" 

" I have had ordinary business transactions with hmi." 

" Were you acquainted with the deceased ? " 

" In the ordinary course of business, as I am with the 
defendant." 

" Then there may be some prejudice in your mind ? " 

"AHttle." 

" Such as it would require evidence to remove ? " 

" Yes ! " 

" You are excused " says the judge. " Call the next." 

Whilst the next was being called and examined, I went 
over to the clerk of the court, and lodged my claim for 
attendance fees, ten cents a mile each way, as travelling 
expenses, two dollars ; two dollars for the day, total four 
dollars. Sixteen shillings for riding down to town, and 
telling the court that my mind was prejudiced ! ! 

The case lasted two days. Prisoner was found guilty of 
murder in the fourth degree, the maximum penalty of which 
is two years in the penitentiary, and this is what he got. It 
may seem strange that there should be any cause for sym- 
pathy in this case, except for the wives and families, but this 
young fellow had worked his way up, from cattle herding on 
the prairie, to owning a good dispensing chemist's business, 
whilst in other ways he was a young man who was expected 
to take a high position in political or social life. The 
revolver is a great demoraliser in the West. Here was one 



72 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

'life taken, and another blasted by one small bullet, no larger 
than a pea. 

During my seven vears residence there were seven 
murders committed in the county, but in no case was 
capital punishment inflicted. 

Nothing impresses its mark — except the sun which tanned 
our skins — on the people, like the county newspaper. It 
is the soul of Western life, it chronicles births, deaths, and 
marriages, it tells us all that has happened, and all that is 
going to happen. It welcomes your arrival, it regrets your 
departure. It is read by old and young, it is racy, it is 
personal, it is sometimes ungrammatical, but it is there, and 
if push, and wind, and cheek is availing, it is destined to Hve. 
It may not enhghten your mind much on national politics, 
but it tells you who has just put a fence around his farm. 
It may not tell you anything about kings, sultans, or 
emperors, but it tells you that your next door neighbour's 
carbuncle has gotten well. Its mission is to boom the town, 
to quote all paragraphs it can find, saying anything in praise 
of the county, to tell when there has been a rainfall, to 
attend social parties, and to print flattering accounts of them. 
To eat water melons, and tell the world who brought them, 
and how good they were, and to look after the social and 
political welfare of the people generally. Bless the Western 
paper, I love it. I have clasped the hand of its editor. I 
have sat in his den, and talked poHtics and crops, he has 
read my manuscript, and printed it, he has written flattering 
notices of me, and it would be base ingratitude, if I did not 
wish him to soar, as does the eagle, and look down from a 
lofty pinnacle of literary fame, upon all calumniators, and 
competitors. Here's to him ! May he live long, and enjoy 



LAND AND WATER, LAW AND ORDER. 73 

it. Seven years make a vast difference in the appearance of 
the prairie, when it is being peopled by an enterprising and 
progressive class. Hedges had grown to a great height 
where the Osage orange had been planted. Miles and miles 
of barb wire fencing had been erected, so that now there is 
scarcely any unfenced land. Houses have been removed, 
and larger and better ones built. The old shed with the 
hay roof has been replaced by a substantially built barn. 
Orchards and vineyards have come to perfection, so fruit is 
cheap, and plentiful. Having spent six winters, and entered 
on the seventh summer, we decided after the crop was 
gathered, to leave for old England. The account of our 
departure, and the home journey will be found in the next 
chapter. 




D 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE SURPRISE PARTY. THE HOME JOURNEY. 

URING the time mentioned, I think my family and 
myself passed through all those strange vicissitudes 
which all emigrants will pass through if they only stay away 
long enough, and Kansas is certainly a good place to get a 
fair view of the American people and their institutions, as 
well as to live a life of adventure, and to have experiences 
not common to everyday English life. We had seen the 
destructive cyclone — which by the way is next door to 
" seeing the wind " — making wreck and ruin of every 
obstacle in its track ; the terrible hailstorm, that has 
blighted many a bright prospect of an abundant crop ; 
the bitter northern blasts that send the mercury tumbling 
below zero ; the long-continued drought, drying up brooks, 
and confining rivers to very narrow beds ; then the flashing 
of lightning, the cracking thunder, and the pouring rain, 
till one would think the heavens were bent upon doing their 
worst ; then the clouds dispersed, the sun pouring forth a 
flood of light and warmth, and the whole scene becoming 
one of simple splendour; then the delicious warm balmy 
days, with cloudless skies, which followed one of those 
convulsions. All are to be remembered with feelings as 
mixed as the weather. 



THE SURPRISE PARTY. THE HOME JOURNEY. 75 

If I make any pretence of sticking to my text, I must 
at once make preparations for the homeward journey ; but 
before actually starting, it will not be amiss to narrate one 
little incident, though it be of a personal nature, as it will 
introduce the reader to that American institution, "the 
surprise" party. The fact of our leaving becoming known 
to our friends and acquaintances, they conceived the happy 
idea of giving us a " surprise " party. We were seated at 
the table — (" we " includes wife, self, and little maid) — the 
four children fast asleep in their beds, when we heard, first, 
the bark of the watch dog, then the roll of wheels, then the 
sound of voices. As the voices came nearer and more 
distinct, they were eagerly recognised ; and in much less time 
than it would take me to write, the house was besieged and 
the storming — I mean the "surprise" party — had possession. 
Legs of fowls were seen protruding from beneath snow-white 
cloths; baskets upon baskets were brought in, containing 
turkeys and hams, currant pie and apple pie, jam pie, and' 
pies of every description ; plum cake and plain cake, gold 
cake and silver cake, iced cake and jelly cake. We were 
ordered to " stand out of the way." One kind soul had 
brought a table and half-a-dozen chairs. Soon the tables 
wTre laid, and an excellent spread it looked — indeed, one of 
a waggish nature said they had " laid it on thick." Then we, 
who ought to have been hostess and host, were treated as 
guests, and given posts of honour. Our kind entertainers 
were thirty-six in number. " Ample justice " was of course 
done; still there would be quite the twelve baskets full 
of fragments left. It did not seem to be an occasion for 
mirth — we had that when the young people dropped in 
with laughter and song a week previous — but more one for 



76 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

quiet talk, requests to " remember us kindly to all in 
Herefordshire." Then came the hour for parting, and the 
time to return thanks. Oh ! where is that brilliant, dashing 
oration that was so clear and distinct in my mind when I 
was at the supper table. Here I am standing ; a thoroughly 
sympathetic audience before me ; but the speech is a 
magnificent failure. My wife, in endorsing all I had said — 
I had said something, then ! — made a better job than I did, 
and my views on women not speaking in public are much 
modified in consequence. Then came the last "good-bye." 
On October the i8th we commenced our railroad 
journey. An unfortunate circumstance in connection with 
our luggage has caused a delay and a loss of a train, so it is 
half-past one on the morning of the 19th when we leave 
La Harpe, Kansas, en route for New York. A run of thirty- 
five miles bring us to Fort Scott, where we change cars for 
St. Louis — a city about three hundred miles distant. When 
the day dawns we are at Nevada, in the State of Missouri. 
This State is one peculiarly rich in minerals, and also has a 
fair soil for farming purposes ; but I have heard it said there 
. is no State in the Union for which Providence has done so 
much and man so little. It was a slave State, and in the 
early days of the settlement in Kansas, — which joins it, and 
which always remained free from the curse of slavery — the 
Border Ruffians used to cross over, and there were many 
hand-to-hand conflicts before the great crisis which plunged 
the whole country into a four years' war. Much real warfare 
was carried on in this State during a great part of that 
deadly struggle. The country we passed through does not 
look of a very inviting nature. The houses are of the 
tumble-down order, and the little villages are built of wood, 



THE SURPRISE PARTY. THE HOME JOURNEY. 77 

and have been some years previously treated to a coat of 
white paint, but now the houses, under stress of weather, 
look whitey-brown, and very much the worse for wear. The 
people, too, with veiy few exceptions, look as dilapidated as 
the houses, and quite as brown. The loafer saunters over 
from his seat outside the " grocery " door, and squirts 
tobacco juice against the car wheels, and then returns to 
his post, and whittles a piece of pine-board with his jack- 
knife, no doubt feeling he is doing his share towards 
upholding the reputation of his State. As we reach a 
village, by noon, the restaurant keeper is sounding his gong, 
and the conductor announces "twenty minutes for dinner." 
Most of the passengers have a supply of provisions with 
them, especially those travelling long journeys. Some time 
after passing Sedalia, we run parallel with the wide muddy 
Missouri river. The river and the railroad appear to occupy 
the entire valley. The banks on either side are covered 
with timber, and the effect of the many coloured leaves is 
very striking at this time of the year. The view along this 
line, though ever changing, is one exceedingly picturesque, 
made up as it is of rock, wood, hill, vale, and water. 
There does not present any spot at all suitable for farming 
purposes. What most struck Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes 
in riding through England was the greenness of the land- 
scape and the red faces of the children. An Englishman 
would certainly be much disgusted with the dreariness of 
the American landscape, especially in agricultural districts. 
Those patches of cheerful green which meet the eye at all 
seasons of the year in this country are lacking after the 
summer months in America ; and as for the red faced 
children, you look for them in vain. 



78 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

We reach St. Louis by 7 p.m , and have to change 
cars. We enter the Union Depot, which is crowded with 
waiting passengers. This is probably the greatest terminus 
in the United States. Passengers going north, east, south, 
or west all appear to change here, and the place is crowded 
at all hours of the day and night. A few minutes previous 
to the departure of a train a passenger agent walks through 
the building, and announces the time of departure, from 
what platform, and other information. We have but a short 
time to wait, and we again go "aboard." Passengers 
holding first class tickets can, by applying at the office at 
a depot, obtain a sleeping berth in a Pullman car, on 
payment of two dollars. They leave the ordinary travelling 
car, and spend the night in their berths, then return to the 
car in the morning. This information is for the ordinary 
traveller, and not for the person who can enjoy the luxurious 
and expensive travelling in one of these truly beautiful and 
ingeniously contrived cars. 

After leaving St. Louis we cross the Mississippi into the 
State of Illinois. We run across the State and into Indiana, 
and reach Indianapolis. This town is the centre of im- 
portance, as the home of General Harrison, the nominee of 
the Republican party, and since elected President. It was 
at Indianapolis that the late Henry Ward Beecher, at 
the age of twenty-three, began his ministry, living in two 
rooms — we are told — over a stable, where he scrubbed the 
tobacco-stained floors, and Mrs. Beecher made a table-cloth 
and some curtains out of an old cloak and a skirt. The 
country is rather pretty, and the houses are of a more 
showy description ; the villages, too, are neater, and the 
roads in better condition than farther west. Indian corn 



THE SURPRISE PARTY. THE HOME JOURNEY. 79 

is grown here, as in Kansas, and many fields are cut and 
shocked like wheat ; and wheat is drilled between the rows, 
and is up and looking well. Much of the land had been 
under timber, and the trees had been cut down about a 
yard from the ground and the stumps left to decay. The 
grazing land does not appear to be what we, in this country, 
should call good ; neither do the cattle and stock show 
much signs of high breeding. The fences are mostly zig- 
zag, built of cleft wood. 

There is little variation in the appearance of the country 
through all the part of Indiana which we pass, and Ohio, 
which joins it, is of the same character, until we come 
to the State of Pennsylvania, when we meet with a very 
mountainous region, and here is some magnificent scenery. 
The land, even to the hill-tops, is fenced. Our route now 
hes through Pennsylvania, which, if I may be allowed the 
term, is the Wales of America, not only on account of its 
topographical features, but in consequence of the number 
of colliers and miners who leave the Welsh hills and go to 
work the coal and other mines of this State. At night we 
reach Pittsburgh, the leading town of the State, as far as 
factories, smelting works, &c., are concerned. The effect 
of the numerous lights, which look like a starlit sky turned 
upside down is very striking. We change cars here, and 
settle down for a night's rest, and reach Philadelphia by 
daylight on Sunday morning. A truly magnificent city is 
Philadelphia ; there is a substantial appearance about the 
buildings which is not common " out West." The country 
outside is of a well-appearing character, and the manner of 
farming is much more English in appearance than anything 
I had seen in America. We cross a portion of New York 



So SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

State, and arrive at Jersey City about 9 a.m., having ac- 
complished our railway journey of somewhere near 1,400 
miles in 56 hours, which, including all stoppages, is not very 
bad travelling. We leave the train here, and take a boat 
over to New York City ; select a suitable conveyance and 
a convenient hotel ; get what every traveller will need as 
much as ever David Copperfield did — a good wash — and 
enjoy our breakfast. We hear that the first vessel sailing 
for Liverpool leaves at 7 a.m. Tuesday ; and we at 
once decide to make our return ocean passage aboard 
her. 

The steamer leaves at 7 a.m. In these days of travel, 
when almost every one has seen a great city, it would be a 
waste of space to attempt a description of New York ; but 
the sightseer would be amply repaid by a visit to Trinity 
Church, the new Post Office, the Stock Exchange, the New 
York and Brooklyn Bridge, the Cooper Institute, &c., 
whilst a walk along the Broadway, Fifth Avenue, and 
Wall-street would be interesting. But to the church-going 
community, undoubtedly Dr. Talmage, his Tabernacle, 
and his congregation are the centre of attraction. In the 
A^eta York Herald, under the somewhat flippant title of 
*' Preparing for Eternity," I saw amongst the list of preachers 
that Dr. Talmage would preach in his own church morning 
and evening. I leave the hotel at six o'clock to attend the 
night service, take a street car, and ask to be put down as 
near Brooklyn Bridge as possible. I take the train over 
the Bridge, and enquire for " Talmage's." The reply is — 
" Take a Third Avenue and Greenwood car ; you will be 
put down close to the door." This is said in a strong Irish 
brogue. We arrive at the Tabernacle half an hour before the 



THE SURPRISE PARTY. THE HOME JOURNEY. 8 1 

service begins, and get a good seat near the pulpit, or 
rather platform, for Talmage, like the late Henry Ward 
Beecher, objects to presenting the head and shoulders 
alone to the view of the congregation. A beautiful building; 
the interior is in horseshoe shape, and holds about four 
thousand people. It is rapidly filling. The gallery is filled 
first. The organist takes his seat ; one need understand 
little of music to know that the keys are being touched by 
a masterly hand. The Prince of Wales in one of his 
recently published speeches, says, " Music acts directly on 
the emotions, and it cannot be abused, for no excess in 
music is injurious." Perhaps not having heard the grand 
strains of a well-played organ for nearly seven years has 
somewhat dulled my " emotions," but they are certainly 
quickened by this truly grand playing, and to sit listening, 
and at the same time watching the people filling every 
available space, makes me almost forget that I have come 
to see and hear a great preacher, whose name is known 
all over the vast continent of America, and wherever the 
EngHsh language is spoken. 

Talmage enters, ascends the platform, and walks along to 
a little table on which are two or three books, and near it 
an easy chair. A tall, slim man, side whiskers of a light 
colour, hair a litde darker, the top of the head bald, except 
a small band of hair brushed up over the temples. He has 
what we are told is necessary for an orator — a very wide 
mouth. His general appearance is anything but pre- 
possessing. At a signal from the leader of the singing — 
there appears to be no organised choir — the whole congre- 
gation rises, and sings a verse to the Old Hundredth tune. 
I'his is simply grand. The preacher then gives out the 



82 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

hymn, " Revive us again." The voice is harsh and un- 
pleasant, and the entire reading anything but good or 
impressive. I cannot put the beauty of the singing in cold 
print, so pass on to the Scripture reading. This is the 
account of St. Paul's ship-wreck. The reading and the 
comments place such a realistic picture before the hearer 
that he feels he ought to read that chapter again. The short 
prayer which follow is impressively uttered. The reading 
of other hymns follows, but the harshness of voice remains. 
The text is " I am innocent of the blood of this just person ; 
see ye to it." Space forbids the following of the subject- 
matter of the sermon. There is much dramatic action, 
which seems studied and superfluous. Some forcible ex- 
amples of the power of conscience are given. A few 
passages from Shakespeare are delivered with all the 
gesture and voice of an Irving or a Booth. But the 
sermon appears disconnected, and the quotations are given 
with no particular appropriateness to the subject he wishes 
to illustrate. In speaking of cleanliness, he says that God 
intended man to be clean w^hen he made the world two- 
thirds water and one third land, and because the ancients 
could not take the hint, it was all put under w^ater. This, 
of course, causes an audible titter all over the building* 
The singing of the final hymn and the pronouncing of the 
benediction brings the service to a close. As I return 
home, it comes to my mind that Talmage himself is the 
smallest part of the service. Then, when it is remembered 
that he has been there twenty years, and that the building, 
the congregation, and the music are all of his creating, one 
feels a little perplexed to know what to think of America's 
greatest preacher. 



THE SURPRISE PARTY. THE HOME JOURNEY. 83 

On Monday night we went aboard the vessel, and were 
ordered out at 5.0 a.m. for inspection. At 7.0 a.m., the 
vessel backs out into the river, makes a half turn, and we 
commence sailing homewards. Though there is a slight 
drizzling rain, most of the passengers crowd on deck to 
enjoy the magnificent view presented, as the vessel glides 
down the river. About noon we reach Sandy Hook, seventy- 
five miles from port, and from here they commence 
measuring the distance traversed by the ship each day. We 
have second cabin berths, and are well provided with food, 
and get good attendance. I should here call attention to 
the vast difference between second cabin — or intermediate — 
and steerage ; whilst the former leaves nothing to be desired, 
the latter is so abominably bad, that it certainly calls for 
some interference to relieve the poorer class of emigrants. 
Half-a-dozen married couples — on the outward journey — are 
put into one compartment, and are painfully crowded, and 
the food is of the poorest kind, and most filthily prepared. 
Even on our home journey, the " soup " was handed round 
by dirty " stewards," and given in tin cans to steerage 
passengers, no table from which to eat their food, the 
potatoes half cooked in their rinds, were handed out — 
literally handed out — by dirty stowaways. The passengers 
receive no civil word from any of the ship's crew from land 
to land, unless they can put their hands into their pockets, 
and give occasional gratuities. Sea sickness is more 
prevalent among this class, than among the other passengers, 
and the provision for such cases is very inadequate, the 
expectoration sometimes being allowed to lie in the berths for 
many hours. A steerage passage under such conditions is 
as bad as nine or ten days spent in a filthy cellar of a 



84 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

London slum. The captain, doctor, and purser who go 
round for inspection, see nothing of this filth, as their visits 
are paid at stated hours, and the crew always prepare to 
receive them, so to their eye, it is all serene. 

At New York, a man put his wife on board, to return to 
her parents in this country. Even before the vessel sailed, 
she showed signs of insanity, and when we had been at sea 
two days, she became so violent, as to be found necessary to 
strap her down. On Sunday, the end came, and we had 
another burial at sea. The captain read the Church of 
England burial service, and at the words " w^e commit this 
body to the deep," the body which was sewed up in an old 
sail, was tipped over into the sea. It was very sad, no one 
seemed to know anything of the poor creature, and she left 
a little child of some fifteen months old, who had been 
taken in charge by the second cabin stewardess, but w^hen 
Queenstown was reached, the grandparents were com- 
municated with by telegraph, and they came to meet the 
vessel at Liverpool The voyage on the w^hole was favourable, 
the vessel rocking the most when going the fastest. Our 
runs varied considerably, ranging from two hundred and 
forty-four to three hundred and twenty miles in the twenty 
four hours. The roughest weather was experienced in St. 
George's channel, as we met a strong head wind. We 
arrived in Liverpool at ten o'clock p.m. on Friday, November 
3rd, having been on the water eleven days. 



I 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CONCLUSION. THE EMIGRATION QUESTION. 

N the foregoing pages it has been my endeavour to give 
a record of my personal experiences in the West, and 
in closing, will try to give such information as will be of 
use to any person desirous of changing the quiet life of 
England, for the more unsettled and adventurous life ot 
America. 

The only person I could with confidence advise to 
emigrate is the single young man or woman. They could 
move from place to place, and could eventually settle down 
if they liked the country. Wages for persons who will work 
are higher on the average than in England, and the food — in 
farm houses especially — leaves nothing to be desired. When 
the severity and eccentricities of the climate are considered, 
the work is hard, but the hired hand is, as previously 
mentioned, always treated as " one of the family." Nearly 
all the States have a steady demand for farm workers, but 
the best time to go out to get it, is to leave England in 
February, or March. 

The winters are not long, but very severe in Illinois, 
Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska. The summers 
are attended with much heat, and, with the exception of 
catarrh, residents are liable to scarcely any disease. In the 
southern States : Louisiana, North and South Carolina, 



86 SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 

Georgia, Alabama, &:c., the climate is of a much milder 
description, and the residents suffer much from chronic 
lassitude — otherwise confirmed laziness — but they are waking 
up, and are now not more than fifty years behind the 
northern States in push and enterprise. California is a 
delightful place to live in, but generally afflicted with too 
much rain or too much dry weather. Provisions generally are 
dearer there, and the wages higher than in some other States. 

In a previous chapter I have mentioned the prospects of 
the settler on the free grants of land; but one thing that should 
be particularly borne in mind is, that there is far too much 
of this wild land brought into cultivation, and the result is 
that there is scarcely any grain that can be grown to give 
a good profit to the grower in this or any other country. 

Many a good industrious Englishman would be much 
better employed devoting his money and energies to the 
cultivation of some of the neglected English soil, than 
combating with the eccentricities of an American or 
Canadian climate. Some well-meaning persons, after 
scampering over the prairies, return to this country and 
speak and write eloquently of the " Homes of the West," 
" The fertile belts," "The Eldorados," and so forth. But 
they know little or nothing of the hard and weary round of 
toil, of servants who leave without a moment's notice, of 
storms that in a few minutes destroy the products of a 
summers' labour, of the nine to twelve per cent, interest on 
borrowed capital, interest which must be paid whether crops 
fail or not. Thousands and thousands of acres of this 
western land is mortgaged, and much of it is beyond hope 
of ever being released with any satisfaction to the owner- 
occupier. 



CONCLUSION. THE EMIGRATION QUESTION. 87 

Reverting for a moment to the desirability of encouraging 
our rural population to leave England, I can only say that I 
never met a pioneer of prairie life, who, being disinterested 
and honest, would ever recommend the breaking up of the 
English home and transferring the family to the prairie, or, 
what is still worse, to cut down trees and stock up a farm 
out of the woods. 

This naturally leads one to turn attention to the conditions 
under which our rural population is existing, and try to 
discover if these conditions could be so altered, that the 
census returns would show an increase, instead of a 
continued decrease in the population of country districts. 
Undoubtedly, many of the attractions of life in large towns, 
or in foreign countries, are purely of an imaginary character, 
but still there is nothing very attractive about the life of the 
average English labourer. Educated as our young men are 
in the present day, they want something better to look 
forward to, than twelve shillings a week and the workhouse, 
and until there is a great alteration in the land law^s, there 
will be for the labourer no other prospect. It is useless to 
expect any system to work, by which a man is expected to 
buy land, or anything else without the cash — he will always 
buy too dear for a certainty — so any system of land purchase 
by government loans will be a most unworkable scheme, 
and can be of no advantage to any but the present owners. 
A bill could be passed that would make land as easily 
transferred as any other commodity. Let a Land Transfer 
Office be established in the capital town of every county, 
and all sales of land be conducted through that channel, a 
record being kept, which could be inspected by any person 
for a small fee, and abolish much of the legal formality and 



SEVEN YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE. 



wordiness, for which the unfortunate parties to a contract 
now have to pay, and which can be of no earthly use to 
any one, and only a source of income to lawyers and lawyers' 
clerks. Having obtained a " Land Transfer Bill," then 
start the land purchase scheme. This could be done by 
letting young men who are now spending their wages in the 
village public-house, place their savings under government 
control, or something on the same principle as the savings 
bank, receiving interest of not less than three and a half per 
cent., and with the distinct object of the money being used 
for the purchase of land. I feel that with this object in view, 
many of the smartest young men would be encouraged to stay 
on the land, and would think a little before making early, and 
in most cases improvident marriages. A system similar to 
the one I have suggested, would create a peasant pro- 
prietorship by appealing to the best instincts of the working 
men, without materially altering the present conditions of 
landlord and tenant, which works with much satisfaction 
where the landlord is a man of wealth, and knows and does 
his duty, but the other class of landlord must, in the interest 
of the community, be either converted, or driven into a 
corner of a capacity as meagre as his capital and ability. 

Instances are frequently recurring showing how insecure 
is the hold England has upon her Colonies, and how great 
is the danger of building up nations which may become 
hostile to her. Therefore, it is clear, that every nerve should 
be strained, to make the interest of the rural population lie 
in the soil it cultivates, for the depopulating of our country 
districts is sapping the very foundations of this country's 
existence. 

THE END. 



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